Silvey Developing ‘Private Option’ Medicaid Alternative

Clay County State Senator Ryan Silvey is developing a Missouri Republican alternative to Medicaid expansion is the state is being developed, according to KMBC TV.
The plan is similar to one now in place in Arkansas, Iowa and Pennsylvania. The plan would permit the uninsured to use state health care law money, provided for Washington, to buy private insurance coverage.
Silvey objected to Medicaid expansion because he fears the state budget can’t handle it.
Silvey, however, believes the state’s Medicaid system has to be reformed.
In an opinion piece earlier this week in the Springfield News Leader newspaper, Silvey wrote doing nothing on the issue is not an option.
“Moving some folks into a private option, having the state give subsidies for them to obtain their own insurance is an attractive way to try and make things run a little bit smoother,” said Brendan Cossette a lobbyist for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber has now joined Governor Jay Nixon and the Missouri Hospital Association in the effort to expand Medicaid in the state.
Currently, Missouri has 801,000 uninsured citizens, according to the Hospital Association.
A Medicaid expansion plan being pushed by Democratic Governor jay Nixon would provide health insurance through Medicaid for almost 300,000 Missourians.
One of the premises of this plan is that the ‘private option” would permit the state to obtain about $2.2 billion dollars a year the federal government is offering.
That would be 100% of the cost of Missouri Medicaid expansion. The money is available to 2014 and 2015. Because Missouri did not start its own exchange last year, the money was not available to the state.
Governor Nixon has complained bitterly Missouri is letting money that should come back to Missouri be sent to other states.
He says his plan would add coverage for about 300,000 Missourians.
In a statement Friday, Nixon’s office was critical of the plan linking Medicaid expansion with welfare reform.
“By bringing in unrelated programs, this proposal creates unnecessary obstacles to health care for 300, 000 Missourians,” according to the statement.
In an effort to lure reluctant GOP lawmakers to the plan, its developers are including entitlement reform as part of the package.
Some of those proposed reforms would include tightening regulations in the state’s assistance to needy families program, and the state element of the Food Stamp program.
Cossette also says this plan eases the strain on Missouri hospital caused by the unpaid for care they provide to Missourians without insurance.
The Hospital Association states more than $1 billion a year is spent by Missouri hospitals on uncompensated care. In the Kansas City area, the unpaid for care amounts to more than 530 million dollars a year, according to the Association.