Political Eye
No Health Net
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 9:15 PM CDT
No surprises here, but this week Gov. Matt Blunt signed MO HealthNet (aka SB 577, or No Health Net) into law and was promptly pounced upon by Democrats and public health advocates for “making his Medicaid cuts of 2005 permanent, officially completing his broken promise not to cut Medicaid.” More than 700,000 Missourians, including 121,000 children, are without health care, and those who still have it are paying higher co-pays and premiums. We will hear much more about this legislation from both sides as the Blunt vs. Jay Nixon race heats up.
Meanwhile, Timothy McBride, who directs the health policy program at Saint Louis University, is the lead author of a new policy brief that argues Missouri could create a universal health insurance plan that is similar to Massachusetts’. “Missouri has to decide that universal coverage is something we want to achieve,” McBride said. “If Missouri wants to do it, we already have about half the money we need to cover the uninsured.” Maybe a Democratic governor would listen to a scholarly public health analyst like McBride and not the lobbyists and administrators who will benefit from Blunt’s unwieldy plan.
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