Is there renewed hope for Medicaid expansion in Missouri?
Last year, voters in
On Tuesday, the
And
The result in
Some advocates confirmed there were conversations taking place about how to expand the program, but they would not talk about plans.
"There is a sense that it might be time again in
"I don't think it's going to happen overnight. People are waiting to see what happens in other states."
Bypassing state legislatures and taking the issue directly to a vote by residents is what has been happening.
In
He said he'd rather go to jail than put the state in "red ink," according to the
A group in
"
Fourteen states have so far declined to expand Medicaid, which was part of the Affordable Care Act.
States were never supposed to have an option on expansion. It was mandated until the
That decision has created inequity among states, an issue that has resonated with voters, Curtis told the
"Interestingly, Medicaid has always polled pretty well, but there is no question public awareness about the importance of Medicaid is at an all-time high," said
"I attribute that to the Republican efforts in
Expanding Medicaid was designed to decrease the number of people without health insurance.
For example, expanding Medicaid offers coverage to low-income adults without children.
Currently, in
Expansion means extending coverage to those who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That means a single Missourian without a child could earn
Historically, the program has been critical for access to coverage for children.
Nearly half of
But without expansion, many of the country's working poor find that they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid coverage and earn too little to afford subsidized coverage on the online health insurance exchanges.
Many policy experts refer to this as the coverage gap.
Despite the fact that the federal government would pick up a majority of the funding for the expansion,
Hospitals have warned that forgoing expansion would be detrimental, particularly to rural hospitals that take care of a large share of patients who are uninsured or on government programs such as Medicare.
The
Incoming House Speaker
"I don't see much of an appetite," he said in an interview.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on November and what voters decide elsewhere.
"Perhaps the ground might be softening," Jen Bersdale, executive director of Missouri Health Care for All, said in an interview. "Attacks have helped average voters understand what's at stake."
"There are a lot of people in the state that are encouraged by seeing what has happened in other states," she said.
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