Likely Gubernatorial Nominee Approaches Missouri Health InsuranceJuly 2008
A report released this week by the Missouri Foundation for Health revealed some unhappy news regarding
Missouri health insurance and the state of health care for its citizens.
Since 2005 budget cuts to subsidized medical insurance programs like Medicaid, more than 13% of state residents have become uninsured, or roughly 772,000 people.
And the cost of those uninsured has been heaped on those who have managed to pay for their own Missouri health insurance; the costs of caring for the uninsured raised the average family's medical insurance premiums by $291 dollars. Think of what a struggling, lower or middle class family could do with another $291 dollars each month!
Likely democratic nominee for Governor Jay Nixon has taken on Missouri's
medical insurance woes as part of his platform, with an ambitious plan to expand health care for low-income state citizens, and to make low cost Missouri health insurance available to all children.
While Nixon claims that his plan would restore Medicaid services, bring down the cost of insurance, and bring $700 million a year in federal funds back to the state, he hasn't addressed how it is that Missouri could pay the $265 million dollars needed to implement the plan.
Facts on:
Missouri Health Insurance
Did you know...
More than 13% of Missouri state residents don't have medical insurance?
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What we do know is that his insurance plan relies on already existing state funds, and about $700 million in matching federal funds that are now going to pay for health care in other states.
The 2005 cuts, Nixon says, resulted in Missouri receiving $1.86 billion less in federal funds over the last three years, and he hopes that by regaining those federal funds, health care in his state can be vastly improved.
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