Campaign to expand Missouri Medicaid gets $1.3 million from health care organizations

Sep. 6--JEFFERSON CITY -- The campaign to put Medicaid expansion on the statewide ballot in 2020 got $1.3 million in donations on Thursday from two healthcare organizations.

Healthcare for Missouri, a PAC formed to support the expansion initiative petition, received roughly $1.1 million from a nonprofit healthcare advocacy group called the Health Forward Foundation. The PAC also received $250,000 from BJC Healthcare, one of the largest nonprofit hospital chains in the United States.

In Missouri, the state-run Medicaid program, MO HealthNet, provides health insurance only to children, pregnant women, those with disabilities and some seniors.

Under expansion, Medicaid would be available to those making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is less than $18,000 a year for an individual or $30,000 for a family of three.

Thirty-six states have already expanded Medicaid. Last year, voters in Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho all approved Medicaid expansion.

"Patients, hospitals, doctors, nurses, health centers, and health advocates are quickly rallying around this ballot initiative.," aid Dr. Heidi Miller, a St. Louis physician speaking on behalf of Healthcare for Missouri. "We are eager for Missouri voters to finally be able to decide this issue for our own state."

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