© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mo. Republicans Propose Alternate Medicaid Bill

vitualis
/
Flickr

A long-promised Republican alternative to Medicaid expansion was filed Tuesday in the Missouri House. It's being touted as "market-based Medicaid.”

Under the bill, private insurers would compete to provide coverage for Medicaid recipients, and those recipients could get cash incentives for taking care of their health and avoiding costly medical procedures.  But it would also remove around 44,000 children from the Medicaid rolls. The bill is sponsored by GOP House Member Jay Barnes of Jefferson City.

"Those children have families with incomes sufficient to afford private health insurance, and I think that most people understand that Medicaid ends up with poorer health results than private health insurance,” Barnes said.

House Democratic Floor Leader Jake Hummel says he's disappointed with that provision.

"Certainly they are the most vulnerable, they are the people that we need to be helping first,” Hummel said. “We seem to be leaving off almost 200,000 Missourians off the health care rolls. Clearly I don't this this is where we need to be."

Barnes' bill would add about 180,000 adults to the Medicaid rolls, but falls short of the 300,000 sought by Governor Jay Nixon.

Hummel added, though, that he hadn't read the bill yet and that he's hopeful a compromise can be reached.  His own bill that would have implemented Governor Nixon's Medicaid expansion call was voted down by a House committee chaired by Barnes on Monday.

Related Content