The Senate Appropriations Committee has added money to next year's budget to provide healthcare coverage to about 35,000 low-income parents.***
The $145 million dollars to pay for the expansion would come from higher state hospital taxes and matching funds from the federal government. Nixon struck a deal with the Missouri Hospital Association to agree to fund the program earlier this year, but the House refused to insert it in their budget.
If approved, parents earning up to 50 percent of the federal poverty level -- or about $9,155 a year for a family of 3 -- would qualify for coverage.
"Everyone deserves to be healthy," said Republican Sen. Tom Dempsey. "That's why we want to make health insurance more affordable and portable to low-income families so they can use preventive services and stay healthy, rather than go to the costly emergency room as a last resort after they are sick."
Dempsey also said his plan creates a health care home, allows patients to set up health care accounts, and sets guidelines to make Medicaid claims public to root out "waste, fraud and abuse."
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