The Governor says his proposal would bring $5.7 billion to Missouri and provide health coverage to an additional 300,000 Missourians over the next three years – at no cost to the state.
“Across Missouri, non-partisan business groups, including the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, are supporting our effort to strengthen Medicaid. For these leaders, it’s a business decision. They understand that bringing the dollars Missourians send to Washington back home to protect taxpayers, create jobs, and reward work, is good for our economy,” Gov. Nixon said.
“They also understand that sending these dollars to other states will mean more crowded emergency rooms, higher costs for families and businesses, and fewer jobs in our communities. That is why we must move forward now.”
Last fall, a study by the University of Missouri found that bringing these dollars back to Missouri to strengthen Medicaid would create 24,000 new jobs in Missouri in 2014 alone.
Gov. Nixon’s proposal also rewards work by giving working Missourians who simply cannot afford health insurance access to basic health coverage. Under the proposed expansion, low-income Missourians who can’t afford health insurance and earn less than 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level – or $32,500 a year for a family of four – would be eligible for coverage.
Governor Nixon and Republican members of the House and Senate have been at opposite sides of Medicaid expansion since last year’s election. Now it appears both sides are willing to meet somewhere in the middle.
Representative Jay Barnes has filed a bill that he’s calling a more fiscally responsible proposal to reform the state’s current Medicaid system.
Nixon says Barnes’ plan doesn’t expand coverage to those who make 138 percent of the federal poverty level, and that’s a requirement the federal government has laid out for states to receive federal funding. He also says Barnes’ bill would drop about 44 thousand children from the Medicaid rolls, something he doesn’t support.