Nixon visits Cape Girardeau to talk about health care for the poor

Hospitals will help fund an expansion of Missouri's Medicaid program to provide health care coverage to 34,500 low-income adults, Gov. Jay Nixon announced today in Cape Girardeau.

During a visit to Cross Trails Medical Center, Nixon was accompanied by Marc Smith, president of Missouri Hospital Association as he detailed how hospitals would provide the mechanism to draw $93 million in new federal funding to pay for the expansion. Under Nixon's plan, the income limits for adults seeking Medicaid coverage would increase to 50 percent of the federal poverty level from the current limit of about 20 percent. That would mean adult members of a family of four with an income of $11,025 or less would now be eligible. Eligibility rules for children have much higher income limits. Missouri lawmakers would have to approve the eligibility change.

The change will help cut into the more than 700,000 Missourians who have no health coverage, Nixon said, It will also help relieve pressure put on health insurance premiums when hospitals and other providers treat patients who are unable to pay for their health services.

"It isn't just the right thing to do for our neighbors, it is the smart thing to do," Nixon said.

Hospitals support the Medicaid program, known in Missouri as Mo HealthNet, through a provider tax. Almost all of Missouri's hospitals never actually send any money to the state because the tax payments are credited against Medicaid-covered services. The federal government recognizes the tax as state spending and provides matching funds that are used to support the general Medicaid system.

Hospitals are willing to increase their tax rate from 3.25 percent to 4 percent in order to make sure that more people entering emergency rooms have a means to pay for their care, Smith said. The change will recognize an additional $52.5 million that hospitals are dedicating to caring for the needy.

People without coverage put off care, making their services more costly, Smith said.

"Delaying their care or the care of a family member makes costs far higher than they need to be or should be," Smith said.

Eligibility for Missouri's Medicaid program was cut from 100 percent of the poverty guideline to 75 percent under Gov. Bob Holden and cut again to current levels by Gov. Matt Blunt. The last major expansion of eligibility took place in the 1990s.

For more information, check back at semissourian.com or read Tuesday's Southeast Missourian.