Boxed up signed petitions are headed to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to get Medicaid … [+]
Supporters of an initiative to expand Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands of residents in Missouri said they submitted the necessary signatures to the state to place the measure on the November general election ballot.
The Fairness Project, which has helped several other states win Medicaid expansion at the ballot box, Friday said “the campaign submitted twice the number of signatures required.” Once certified by state officials in Missouri, the state’s ballot measure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act will be the second such effort slated for later this year after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt earlier this month placed a question on that state’s June 30 ballot.
“We’re seeing a groundswell of support from Americans, who are sick and tired of a broken political system that has left hard working people without the care they need,” The Fairness Project’s executive director, Jonathan Schleifer said.
The Oklahoma and Missouri efforts are just the latest momentum in Republican-leaning states where lawmakers and governors have blocked efforts to expand health insurance coverage to more poor Americans under the ACA.
Oklahoma and Missouri have been one of 14 remaining holdout states that have already missed out on generous federal funding of the Medicaid expansion. From 2014 through 2016, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion population was funded 100% with federal dollars. The federal government still picks up 90% or more of Medicaid expansion. It’s a better deal than before the ACA, when Medicaid programs were funded via a much less generous split between state and federal tax dollars.
Amid the spread of the coronavirus strain COVID-19, some see Medicaid expansion as gaining momentum given the historic rise in unemployed Americans who are also losing their employer health insurance coverage. In Missouri alone, Medicaid expansion could bring more than “230,000 low-wage workers would gain access to care.”
Already, health insurers like Anthem, Centene, UnitedHealth Group and Molina Healthcare that administer Medicaid benefits in states across the country are expecting a surge of new Medicaid enrollees, including those who gained eligibility because of the ACA’s expansion.
“Voters in red and blue states alike want results, and they want health care that can’t be taken away on a whim by politicians,” Schleifer said. “That was true before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s certainly true today.”