For Immediate Release: For more information contact:
Feb. 4, 2015 Rep. Jake Hummel at (573) 751-0438
House Democratic leader files Medicaid expansion bill
Legislation would create jobs, bolster economy and improve health care access
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – House Minority Leader Jake Hummel today filed legislation that would expand Medicaid eligibility in Missouri to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, pumping an additional $2 billion a year in federal health care spending into the state’s economy and extending health care access to as many as 300,000 Missourians who currently lack it.
“The economic advantages of expansion are clear: it will provide a major statewide economic boost, create jobs and keep rural hospitals from closing their doors,” said Hummel, D-St. Louis. “The longer we delay action, billions more Missouri tax dollars will continue to go to other states instead of coming back to Missouri.”
Under the federal Affordable Care Act, the federal government will pay the full cost of expansion until 2017 and at least 90 percent of the cost thereafter. Under the expanded eligibility of 138 percent of the federal poverty level, individuals earning less than $15,856 a year or a family of four with an annual income of about $32,500, would qualify for Medicaid.
Republicans, who control both chambers of the General Assembly, blocked Medicaid expansion in both 2013 and 2014.
“As a result of the majority party’s stubbornness, many Missourians have fallen into a coverage gap in which they earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance,” Hummel said. “The General Assembly has the power to close that gap and help thousands of Missourians.”
Hummel filed his legislation, House Bill 825, on the same day that a large group of Missourians visited the Capitol to lobby their representatives and senators to support expansion. Many of those Missourians either lack health care access themselves because they fall into the coverage gap or have family members who do.
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