Missouri Medicaid Expansion: Don't Count the Chickens Until They're Hatched

Missouri Dept of Social Services chart showing current
Medicaid (MO HealthNet) enrollment and expenses.
(click image for full size)
I attended a Local Investment Commission (LINC) meeting last week and listened to a detailed report on the Medicaid expansion options for Missouri under the Affordable Care Act. The expansion seems like a no-brainer option for Missouri with a significant increase in low-income people covered under health insurance. However, a Republican-controlled legislature in Missouri promises to make this a tough fight.

As many as 300,000 people, mostly low-income families, would gain access to health care at a minimal cost to the state during the first five years of the expansion. Forget the anti-tax, "small government" talk, extending Medicaid coverage means an improved quality of life for lower-income people -- the most crucial element of the extension.

Medicaid, as Brian Kinkade,  interim director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, indicated provides a range of health services for uninsured children, elderly and disabled citizens. Aside from basic services, Medicaid also provides in-home services, nursing home care, both important services to provide quality health care to those least able to afford it. He also shared that 15% of Missourians are currently enrolled in Mo HealthNet, the name of the state Medicaid program. Remember, 22% of Missouri children live in households with incomes below the Federal poverty line, and over 1 in 6 women in Missouri live in poverty.

Kinkade's hour-long report to the LINC commissioners, LINC Caring Communities coordinators, and area residents was easily the most in-depth presentation on Medicaid that I have heard -- I was stunned by the possibility of so many Missourians gaining access to health care.

The report was completely focused on the existing Medicaid services and demographics, as well as a detailed explanation of the costs of the Medicaid expansion.

One question posed at the end of the presentation focused on the failure of the recent Missouri cigarette tax increase to pass a November 2012 citizen vote, as well as Missouri's failure to choose a state-built health care exchange. The discussed highlighted the lack of a widespread advocacy for the tax increase, despite its regressive burden on people less likely to afford the increased cost.

The proposed Medicaid expansion will drastically increase the number of Missouri residents that have access to a range of health care services. It's likely, given the recent experience with opposition in Missouri to health improvements via the Affordable Care Act, that the Medicaid expansion will fail. An important reminder that strong grassroots action in Missouri is needed to carry the Medicaid expansion forward.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Community Media: Serving More Than a Geographic Region

Community media outlets like KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City have thrived for decades, maintaining a well-established broadcast model: high-quality studio sound broadcast to a wide geographic area serving the "community." Non-profit community radio station like KKFI, along with college radio and small commercial radio stations keep costs low by renting small studios and operating with few paid employees. These stations attract small audiences but differentiate themselves by focusing on community issues, music and culture. This focus is what defines community media, along with -- in the case of community radio -- maintaining cooperative ownership, not corporate ownership. Community radio operators always knew that "community" was more than a geographic region; it was the various cultural, ethnic, social and artistic communities for which locally-produced radio shows target. KKFI has local radio shows by or directed to African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and immigrant
Read more

Quest for a new volunteer management system at KC area food bank

Image
Note: This document is an early draft of a business case to upgrade a volunteer management system. It is not intended to be a fully organized statement of requirements, but more of a collection of features and a document for discussion. Overview Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank, would like to improve the capability of the Volunteer App, the volunteer management system used to schedule, track and recruit volunteers and groups.  The Volunteer Services department would also like to improve the efficiency and accuracy of volunteer management by adapting their processes with new features and functions from an updated application. The current, custom Microsoft Access-based system developed a few years ago provides a rich-featured, robust solution to track individuals and groups volunteering at Harvesters. The system tracks all volunteers working in the Volunteer Outreach Center, as well as those donating their time and skills for events and in departments throughout Ha
Read more

Lee's Summit Proposes the Sanity Approach to Waste Reduction

Image
Finally! The city of Lee's Summit, Missouri took a responsible approach to trash service by replacing an all-you-can-dump-with-no-free-recycling-option to a "volume-based" approach similar to the successful service used in Kansas City, Missouri. After the service is changed, then those residents who have paid $2.50 per month to trash companies like Deffenbaugh can rely on the new service for free recycling, plus get the satisfaction that waste will be reduced and recycling increased. ...the City Council directed city staff to issue the state-required two-year notice to all solid waste haulers providing services in the City that the City is considering implementation of a comprehensive, citywide, solid waste program.  The program currently proposed by city staff includes volume-based pricing for residential trash service with unlimited, curbside recycling at no additional fee .  Under this proposed program, residents would only pay for the amount of trash they discard ;
Read more