Cuts to education, services might loom
Gov. Mike Parson warned on Monday that if the legislature does not reauthorize the medical provider tax, he could be forced to take a knife to the 2021-22 budget to fund the state’s Medicaid program.
This comes with a June 18 court hearing approaching and two additional plaintiffs seeking to join a lawsuit attempting to force the state of Missouri to fund voter-approved Medicaid expansion.
“The clock’s ticking on us,” Parson told reporters Monday afternoon.
“If there’s not some sort of agreement where we have a solution, and it doesn’t happen before July 1, there’s not going to be choices. We’re going to have to start withholding [from the budget] July 1.
The Medicaid provider tax in question is collected from hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies and generates $1.6 billion annually. Missouri then can receive an additional $3 billion in federal funds.
Brian Colby, Missouri Budget Project vice president of public policy, said there are not many areas to cut in the Medicaid program.
“Even if you were to eliminate the non-mandatory programs it still doesn’t free up enough general revenue to get you to $1.6 billion,” he explained.
“This is continuing to be about targeting (Planned Parenthood) that provides health care to a lot of low income and a lot of Black and brown women especially.” – Richard von Glahn, Missouri Jobs with Justice policy director
“So really you are looking at cutting many, many other parts of the budget. Potentially K-12 education, higher education, those other areas because the way Medicaid is structured is most of the funds in Medicaid are federal dollars, so if you cut … a dollar out of the Mo HealthNet division, you really only save about 17 cents because the federal dollars make up the majority of the program.”
The holdup stems from failure to renew the tax during the past legislative session. Several GOP stalwarts want language included in a bill that bans Medicaid coverage of certain birth control methods.
“The only thing that’s going on is the same Republican story over and over again, that’s it, the narrative doesn’t change. You follow me? All they want to do is get attention for stupidity,” said State Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis.
“You have elections coming up and they want to placate, and all of this goes toward those small few who believe in the radicalism of this type of legislation service. That’s all this is, placating to foolishness.”
Richard von Glahn, policy director at Missouri Jobs with Justice, said the provider tax has “always been non-controversial and something that people understood is necessary and I think it’s dangerous for legislators to use such a critical issue to push an ideological position like they’re doing.”
“This is continuing to be about targeting (Planned Parenthood) that provides health care to a lot of low income and a lot of Black and brown women especially. You’re talking about denying access to health care related services, family planning and other pieces, and that’s really what this is. This is an attempt to deny access to services to families.”
Meanwhile in Cole County, prospective additional plaintiffs Luke Barber and Christine Chaney of St. Louis are seeking to join an original lawsuit filed last month against the state’s social services director, Jennifer Tidball, and acting director of the state’s Medicaid program, Kirk Mathews.
Attorney Paul Martin said Barber and Chaney should added as plaintiffs because a ruling against the original plaintiffs “will impair and impede the ability of (the intervenors) to protect their federal and state interests.”
Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office said Monday that the legislature is within its rights to not fund Medicaid – regardless of the public vote approving expansion.
Attorney John Sauer wrote for the state that the lawsuit gives “impermissible credence to an intent the legislature categorically rejected.”
“The legislative branch has exclusive authority over appropriations under the Missouri Constitution,” Sauer wrote.
A ruling for the parties suing “would violate the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches,” Sauer wrote.
Barber, 26, reported an annual salary of $16,000 in the court filing and said he has autism spectrum disorder. Chaney, 43, makes $15,000 a year and suffers from depression. An expansion would allow single adults earning up to $17,664 a year to enroll in Medicaid.
“Both the existing and the expanded Medicaid plan are mandated by law,” their attorneys wrote. “All qualifying individuals are entitled to Medicaid coverage.”
