Campaign launched to put Medicaid expansion on the 2020 ballot

Saturday, September 7, 2019

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, initially mandated Medicaid expansion for every state, requiring each to expand Medicaid coverage to include those people with incomes of up to 133 percent of poverty levels. A 2012 Supreme Court ruling, however, made Medicaid expansion optional. Missouri joins 13 other states that have not yet expanded Medicaid.

On Wednesday, campaign committee Healthcare for Missouri announced they are committed to bringing the issue of Medicaid expansion to Missouri’s voters. According to a press release, the committee consists of a “growing coalition of doctors, nurses, patients, business executives, and healthcare supporters.”

The press release also states that “more than 200,000 uninsured Missourians — including farmers, service workers, and small business employees — would be eligible to receive healthcare if voters approve Medicaid expansion. It would help Missourians who earn too much to qualify for existing Medicaid and too little to be able to afford private insurance.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit/non-partisan organization focused on national health issues, Medicaid expansion in those states that opted to take advantage of Medicaid expansion under the ACA resulted in millions of previously uninsured citizens gaining coverage.

“Under the ACA, Medicaid eligibility is extended to nearly all low-income individuals with incomes at or below 138 percent of poverty ($17,236 for an individual in 2019). This expansion fills in historical gaps in Medicaid eligibility for adults and was envisioned as the vehicle for extending insurance coverage to low-income individuals, with premium tax credits for Marketplace coverage serving as the vehicle for covering people with moderate incomes.”

Those states opting out of Medicaid expansion left many people without an affordable health care option. This is the coverage gap, and approximately 124,000 Missourians fall in to that gap. “Nationally, 2.5 million poor uninsured adults fall into the ‘coverage gap’ that results from state decisions not to expand Medicaid. They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to be eligible for ACA Marketplace premium tax credits.”

The group will have to collect over 172,000 signatures to get the issue on the November 2020 ballot.

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