News Coverage

Push for Medicaid expansion continues beyond session

Missouri’s Republican-controlled Legislature eschewed Medicaid expansion this session, but supporters are holding out hope for next year.

“We all know that we need to expand Medicaid. Everyone knows that,” said Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat. “This will save many lives, and I am optimistic that the right thing will be done.”

Republican legislative leaders have taken recent actions that appear to hint toward movement on the issue in the coming months. They also have expressed optimism over the potential to reform the health care program for the poor, using the expansion as a launch pad.

House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, and Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, have each created a panel that will study Medicaid reform and draft legislation for the 2014 session.

Faith leaders speaking out on Medicaid: Group Calls Out Kurt Schaefer

A group of religious leaders frustrated by the legislative defeat of Medicaid expansion will hold a prayer vigil Monday evening at the Newman Center on the University of Missouri campus.

The vigil, organized by Missouri's Faith Voices, begins at 7 p.m. at the Catholic church at 701 Maryland Ave. Lawmakers end their session Friday. Efforts to expand Medicaid coverage to as many as 300,000 Missourians, led by Gov. Jay Nixon with the support of business and faith leaders across the state, has faltered in the face of stiff Republican opposition.

"Expanding Medicaid is the right thing to do for all Missourians"

Rarely are state legislatures handed an opportunity to materially impact the lives of their most marginalized citizens in a good way. Missouri is presented with such an unparalleled opportunity right now. On June 28, 2012 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act but it also held that expanding Medicaid in 2014 is not mandatory. As of this ruling, it is a choice that states can opt into or out of. Missouri legislature must opt in.

Post Dispatch: "The conservative case for expanded Medicaid"

Why are Republicans in the Missouri Legislature letting President Obama steal conservative principles from right under their noses?

For years, the federal government has generously compensated hospitals in the form of “disproportionate share” payments for the care provided to the uninsured who cannot pay the high costs of their hospital care. Now the president comes along and cuts off the funds, doing the conservative thing at the federal level, and Rep. Todd Richardson calls it a “gun to the head”?

Columbia Tribune: "Missouri Republicans deserve sharp rebuke for the harm they are doing."

In a number of states, Republican lawmakers are making a stubborn stand against the expansion of Medicare coverage contained in the federal Affordable Care Act.

They laud themselves for having denied a tenet of Obamacare, sticking it to the president whose name is attached.

Trouble is, their main effect is to make life harder for constituents in their own states, not to mention throwing sand in the progress of health care reform.

Columbia Tribune- "Medicaid expansion crucial in rural areas"

I am a farmer from Fayette, and I attended the recent rally to strengthen Medicaid at the state Capitol.

It was inspiring to see more than 2,500 fellow Missourians taking the opportunity to tell legislators that Medicaid needs to be fully expanded.

Missouri needs to accept the more than $8 billion in federal funding that Medicaid expansion would bring in over the next several years.

Missourian's pleas for Medicaid Expansion Go Unheeded

Paul Nelson works for $10 an hour at a Kansas City car shop, suffers from diabetes and can’t afford the medicine to deal with it.

The working father still earns too much to be eligible for Missouri’s Medicaid program. That’s why he was hoping — praying may be a better word — for an expansion of the program this year so that he could get health coverage.

“Believe me, it’s rough,” said Nelson, 40.

AP: Fallout for States Rejecting Medicaid Expansion

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as "Obamacare."

It could mean exposing businesses to Internal Revenue Service penalties and leaving low-income citizens unable to afford coverage even as legal immigrants get financial aid for their premiums. For the poorest people, it could virtually guarantee they remain uninsured and dependent on the emergency room at local hospitals that already face federal cutbacks.

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