The decision is likely to trigger a lawsuit from supporters of Medicaid expansion
Credit: AP
FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2020 file photo, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson speaks during a campaign rally at a gun store in Lees Summit, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) Author: Associated Press Updated: 1:03 PM CDT May 13, 2021
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson dropped plans Thursday to expand the state s Medicaid health care program to thousands of low-income adults after the Republican-led Legislature refused to provide funding for the voter-approved measure.
The Republican governor said his administration had withdrawn a request to expand coverage that had been submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in compliance with a constitutional amendment passed by voters last August.
Missouri Gov. Parson abandons plans to implement voter-approved Medicaid expansion
By Rudi Keller
Missouri will not expand Medicaid coverage to working-age adults on July 1 because lawmakers refused to include funding for the health care program in the state budget, Gov. Mike Parson announced Thursday.
In a news release, Parson said the state was withdrawing documents submitted to the federal government necessary to add the approximately 275,000 people who would be eligible for coverage under the voter-approved expansion.
Parson’s action sets up an expected court challenge and forces supporters to argue that eligibility is set under the initiative and the state must provide the coverage.
St. Louis Public Radio
State Sen. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, shown in 2017 when she was a member of the House, has been one of the key supporters of a prescription drug monitoring program.
Missouri is set to shed its distinction as the only state without a statewide program to track opioid prescriptions.
The state House voted 91-64 Tuesday to adopt a prescription drug monitoring program. By January 2024, all health care providers who are legally able to prescribe opioids such as oxycodone will have to enter that information into a database in real time. The intent is to keep people with substance use disorder from going to multiple providers.
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May 09, 2021
Over the past 30 years, as Missouri legislative majorities shifted from Democratic to Republican and party control of the executive changed five times, one piece of recurring legislation has retained strong bipartisan support.
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On 16 occasions, lawmakers have renewed a set of taxes on medical providers essential to funding the Medicaid program. Usually, the votes coincide with passage of the budget bills that fund state government as a whole.
But not this year.
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Lawmakers will take their final budget votes Friday but the Senate bill that would extend the taxes until Sept. 30, 2023, is stalled in the upper chamber. There is an amendment pending that would bar Planned Parenthood from providing Medicaid-funded family planning services.