The Blunt administration dismissed a health care report by the Missouri Foundation for Health today as "political" and designed to benefit Attorney General Jay Nixon.
The Foundation released a report that outlined the impact of Governor Matt Blunt's 2005 Medicaid cuts. It claimed that Blunt's cuts helped lead to more uninsured Missourians. (Read more of its claims by scrolling down a few posts.) But Blunt spokesperson Rich Chrismer dismissed the findings as political
“The Missouri Foundation for Health is supposed to partner with the state to help provide access to health care but it is clear that they are being used by Attorney General Jay Nixon for his political campaign,” said Gov. Blunt’s spokesman Rich Chrismer. “The governor’s office made numerous proposals to partner with the Foundation to help provide health care coverage to families, reduce the number of Missourians who smoke, increase access to primary care, provide more women's health screenings and to reduce health care costs through innovation. Unfortunately the Foundation responded negatively to our proposals. Based on their response and this politically-motivated report we can only conclude that the Foundation is more interested in politics than helping uninsured Missourians access quality, affordable health care," Chrismer said.
Chrismer noted that Foundation CEO, Dr. James Kimmey, is a campaign contributor to Nixon. He said he met with the Governor's office "but refused to partner with the state in any significant way."
Chrismer also noted that Attorney General Jay Nixon selects all the members of the Community Advisory Committee which nominates the candidates for the board of the Missouri Foundation for Health --- "giving Nixon significant influence and control of the board and the actions of its members."
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