Senator - Cut legislature health benefits, too

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Sen. Tim Green has proposed a law that would strip Missouri lawmakers of taxpayer-provided health insurance.

Green, a St. Louis County Democrat, pitched his idea last week at a meeting of the Senate Small Business Committee. His proposal came on the heels of Gov. Matt Blunt's proposal to eliminate Medicaid coverage for 89,000 people who are already living below the poverty level.

"If people at the lowest rung are not to have health care, I don't think it's appropriate for us to sit up here making $30,000 a year and getting this kind of subsidy," Green said. "Without it, lawmakers would have a much greater appreciation for the true cost of health care."

The change would save $825,000 in the last six months of fiscal 2006, Green said.

Green, now a freshman senator after serving 14 years in the House, said the idea of health benefits also contradicts the idea of a citizen-legislature that is supposed to be a part-time job.

Members of the Small Business Committee were cool to the idea. Committee chairman John Louden, a St. Louis County Republican, said the bill seemed to contradict other bills Green has introduced.

"It seems inconsistent with your previous bill, in which you want employers to provide health insurance," Louden said. "Now you're saying the legislators' employer shouldn't be providing health insurance."

Green said the situation was different when legislators make the decision about whether to provide benefits.