by Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post
One of the items on the August 4th ballot in Missouri is Amendment 2, a Medicaid expansion initiative.
Some of the main points from those in favor of the amendment are that it would help keep rural hospitals open, it would bring tax dollars to Missouri from Washington and it would grow the economy by creating jobs.
Missouri Hospital Association Vice President of Legislative Affairs Rob Monsees says one of the key points of Amendment 2 is that it will provide medicaid coverage for those who don’t have it now.
“It’s basically the working poor… right now, if you make over 18% of the federal poverty level which is, like, four or five thousand dollars a year, if you make more than that, you don’t qualify,” Monsees tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “You don’t get any assistance on health-related expenses until you get up to 138% of the federal poverty level which is when the subsidies on the exchange products kick in, so there’s this huge gap of people.”
Monsees says another benefit of Amendment 2 is that it would help keep rural hospitals open. Monsees says not only have there been 15 hospital closures in the state since 2014, the pandemic also had an effect.
“At the height of all of the problems, when we had to do away with outpatient procedures and elective procedures, hospitals across the state, as an entire industry, were losing $32 million a day and we think we lost that over the course of at least a couple of months, which is a billion dollars in lost revenue,” Monsees says. “So this comes at a critical time for the hospital industry.”
Medicaid expansion was placed on the August 4th ballot due to Missourians collecting petition signatures from nearly 350,000 voters.
According to Missourinet, the state's current Medicaid budget is about ten-billion dollars, about one-third of the state's $30 billion dollar budget. The Missouri Foundation for Health says Medicaid expansion will create more than 16,ooo new jobs annually during its first five years, creating more state revenue. But Republican House Speaker Elijah Haahr and Budget Chairman Cody Smith oppose Medicaid expansion, saying it will take dollars out of the classroom. They note it requires a 10% match, for the 90% draw down.