JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The next month in the Missouri Capitol may represent one of the last gasps in the Republican fight against Obamacare.
Missouri, which has Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate, has been a holdout on joining other states in providing health insurance to more poor people.
And, even after 53% of Missouri voters said they wanted to expand the program in a statewide election last August, the House, which sent its version of the budget to the Senate on Thursday, has refused to provide the necessary funding.
For supporters of expansion, there is hope the more deliberative upper chamber will reverse course and side with voters, earmarking the necessary $128 million in state funding to give 275,000 more low-income Missourians health coverage.
Senate leaders, however, weren’t making any forecasts about the fate of the funding following the House budget action.
“I can’t predict what the Senate is going to do,” said GOP Senate President Dave Schatz. “We’re just going to have to wait and see.”
“It’s too early to tell,” added GOP Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden. “It’s the budget process. The House does stuff we like. The House does stuff we don’t like.”
The House’s action was another chapter in the Legislature’s decadelong rejection of President Barack Obama’s signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act.
Under the ACA, states pay no more than 10% of the cost of expanding Medicaid eligibility to households with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty guideline, or about $17,775 per year for a single person.
The state pays about 35% of the cost of the existing Medicaid program, but it has some of the most restrictive eligibility requirements in the nation.
Although Missouri Gov. Mike Parson campaigned against expansion, he proposed funding it when he unveiled his budget in January for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
On Thursday, he too said the budgeting process remains fluid.
“It’s early to speculate about that. We’ll just see what happens,” the governor said.
Parson put the cost at $120 million in state funds and $1.8 billion in federal assistance.
Since then, the federal government has made the pot sweeter, hoping to get more states on board. It will give Missouri as much as $1.5 billion over two years if it moves forward with expansion.
