Senate begins its health care considerations

May 10--Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt believes the shift of health care obligations to the states will give his constituents and all Americans more choices and greater access than the current federal system.

"The states having more ownership here is, I think, a good thing, not a bad thing," the Republican lawmaker said on St. Louis radio station KTRS Tuesday.

Blunt, who also appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday and Fox News' "Happening Now" on Tuesday, has stepped forward as a leading GOP voice in the Senate's consideration of the "repeal and replace" of the Affordable Care Act.

The U.S. House passed its version of the bill, called the American Health Care Act, last week.

Medicaid, Blunt told radio host McGraw Milhaven, has become the top spending priority in some states. Those states need the authority to determine ways of providing better health products instead of just responding to national standards, he said.

"What we've got to do is find a better place than where we are right now," he said. "Hopefully, there will be a bill on the president's desk in the foreseeable future that will allow that to happen. ... I do think it will be the principal focus of the Senate for the next few weeks."

About 965,000 Missourians get health care coverage through the state's Medicaid program, called MO HealthNet. For the state's 2017 fiscal year, about 30 percent of Missouri's total budget went for HealthNet. Roughly 51 percent of the state's Medicaid spending come from federal sources.

Blunt said that of Missouri's 115 counties, 97 have only one provider in the individual exchange under the Affordable Care Act.

"The current law doesn't provide what you do if nobody will offer to sell you insurance but you have to pay a penalty because you don't have insurance," the senator said. "Clearly, this system hasn't worked."

Also on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said every senator of his party signed a letter to Republican leaders of the chamber to abandon attempts to dismantle the health-care system.

"We are committed to acting in a bipartisan, transparent way to improve our health-care system, working closely with our Republican colleagues as long as they give up repeal, as long as they stop trying to undo the progress we have made in the last several years," Schumer said.

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