FOUL: Missouri needs to follow (gulp) Jan Brewer's lead on Medicaid
June 14, 2013
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/foul-missouri-needs-to-follow-gulp-jan-brewer-s-lead/article_00f10c7f-170c-5947-adb8-aa7edf62d1d5.html
If a staunchly Republican governor in a state run by a Republican legislature can do it, why can’t Missouri?
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.
Jefferson City – As legislators in the General Assembly finishes a legislative session defined by their failure to expand Medicaid for working Missourians, frustrated citizens will gather on the steps of the Capitol to light 1,500 luminarias to represent the lives that would be saved every year if legislators fully expand Medicaid to 138% of the federal poverty level.
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.
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.
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”?
Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly handed Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, a defeat on the Medicaid expansion issue. It not only was a defeat for the governor, but for the people. It also was a blow to Mercy Hospital Washington and to all hospitals in Missouri.
Of course, the people who would have been helped with their health conditions also were dealt a blow.
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.