Challenge Starts to Missouri Healthcare Navigators System December 3, 2013

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A coalition of medical organizations and health care advocates has sued Missouri over its requirement that only state-licensed counselors can serve as navigators in a program aimed at helping consumers sign up for coverage under the new online health insurance marketplace.

A new Missouri law requires insurance counselors to receive at least 30 hours of training and pay a small fee in order to help online shoppers negotiate the federal insurance exchange. The law also compels insurance “navigators” to refer individuals who bought their health insurance from a licensed agent back to those agents when considering private coverage. Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature opted against setting up a state-run exchange.

A lawsuit filed on Nov. 25 in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City said the state requirements “directly conflict” with the federal Affordable Care Act and place groups like the nonprofit St. Louis Effort for AIDS in an “untenable position,” restricting their constitutional rights to free speech. The plaintiffs include Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri; Missouri Jobs for Justice; former Democratic state lawmaker Jeanette Mott Oxford, who is now executive director of the Missouri Association of Social Welfare; a physician in Independence; a retired doctor in St. Louis County; and a Kansas City community organizer.

The Affordable Care Act “provides clear and controlling rules for the scope, role and duties of navigators and other consumer assisters,” said Jane Perkins, legal director at North Carolina-based National Health Law Program and one of five attorneys representing those challenging the state law. “Missouri’s law goes the unnecessary step to block the ability of consumer assisters to serve their intended function under the (federal law) which is to help consumers navigate the new marketplace and get enrolled in a qualified health insurance plan.

Missouri Senate Report Won’t Include Medicaid Expansion Plan, LeVota And Other Dems Walk Out November 14, 2013

(AP) – Members of a special Senate committee looking at ways to “transform and reform” Missouri’s Medicaid program demonstrated Wednesday that little has changed in the partisan battle over the government-funded health care plan for the poor.

Democrats sought to include expanded eligibility for the program in a list of recommendations being considered by the committee and walked out of the room when Republicans didn’t want to make it their first topic of discussion.

Republicans, who hold a majority on the Senate Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation and Reform, later voted to keep Medicaid expansion out of the report that is to be released in advance of the 2014 session.

The outcome mirrored numerous other votes taken earlier this year, when the Republican-led Legislature repeatedly defeated efforts by Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon to expand adult Medicaid eligibility.

“Until we reform and transform the current Medicaid program, no one’s in a position where they feel comfortable expanding anything,” said committee chairman Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington.

Democrats argued that expanding Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults lacking health insurance is an integral part of transforming the program. They wanted to add wording to the report saying the Legislature should consider seeking federal approval for a Medicaid expansion plan.

After the committee voted down the Democratic recommendation, Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, acknowledged that the prospects of expanding Medicaid in 2014 appear slim.

“They’re just stuck in their dogma,” LeVota said of Republicans on the committee.

LeVota and the two other Democratic members of the committee – Sens. Jamilah Nasheed and Joe Keaveny, both of St. Louis – left the room as the committee discussed more than a dozen other recommendations included in a draft report

Missouri Will Have Fewer Health Insurance Options Than Other States September 25, 2013

AP) — Missouri residents could have fewer choices for health care plans than those in many other states when enrollment opens next week for new online insurance marketplaces.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services says Missouri residents will have an average of 17 qualified health plans from which to choose in its federally run health insurance exchange. That’s substantially fewer than the national average of 53 health plan options.

The federal government is running Missouri’s health insurance exchange and those in 35 other states that opted not to set up their own online insurance marketplaces. The shopping sites are a key part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by President Barack Obama and are intended to help people without employer-sponsored health insurance find coverage at affordable rates. The insurance exchanges also could be used by small businesses.

Missouri’s projected statewide average of qualified health plans in the marketplace was half as many as in Kansas and less than a third as many as in Illinois. It’s roughly equivalent to the average of 16 plan options in Wyoming, which has a substantially smaller population than Missouri.

Federal officials have not released a specific list of health insurers participating in Missouri’s insurance exchange, nor detailed information about the various plans in advance of the Oct. 1 opening of enrollment. But they have provided a glimpse of the potential cost.

The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that a family of four with a $50,000 income could face average monthly premiums of $798 for a benchmark policy known as the “second-lowest-cost silver plan.” But that cost could decline to $282 a month after federal subsidies.

A similar plan for a 27-year-old individual earning $25,000 could carry an average monthly premium of $220, which could be reduced to $145 with subsidies.

The actual cost to enrollees will vary depending on their personal circumstances and the insurance policies they choose.

Individuals and families could lower their monthly premium costs by choosing a “bronze” plan that has higher deductibles or copayments, or could pay more for monthly premiums by picking a “gold” or “platinum” policy that has lower out-of-pocket payments for visiting a doctor or hospital.

The subsidies, which are in the form of tax credits, vary depending on people’s income, family size, age, where they live, the plans they pick and whether they use tobacco

Blunts Talks of Syria but Not Obamacare in KC September 7, 2013

KC Star Buzz:

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., promised a chat about the Affordable Care Act before an appearance Friday at the Kansas City, Mo. Chamber of Commerce.

Blunt talked about energy — he thinks improving energy independence will provide a dramatic boost to the American economy — but Obamacare, funded or unfunded, didn’t come up.

He never talked about it, and no one asked him about it.

Missouri House Speaker Rejects Call for Healthcare Special Session July 6, 2012

From the KC S tar:
JEFFERSON CITY — There is no reason to call a special legislative session this year in order to opt out of any portion of federal health care law, the leader of the Missouri House said in a statement Friday.

House Speaker Steve Tilley, a Perryville Republican, said he is unaware of any action being taken between now and January that requires the legislature to act. Additionally, a special session will cost taxpayers $25,000 a day and likely would result only in grandstanding and filibustering due to the fact that it is an election year.

“There is nothing the legislature could do with a special session that cannot wait until the legislature returns for regular session,” Tilley said.
More: midwest democracy.comJEFFERSON CITY — There is no reason to call a special legislative session this year in order to opt out of any portion of federal health care law, the leader of the Missouri House said in a statement Friday.

House Speaker Steve Tilley, a Perryville Republican, said he is unaware of any action being taken between now and January that requires the legislature to act. Additionally, a special session will cost taxpayers $25,000 a day and likely would result only in grandstanding and filibustering due to the fact that it is an election year.

“There is nothing the legislature could do with a special session that cannot wait until the legislature returns for regular session,” Tilley said.
more: midwest democracy.com