Gov. Nixon's State of the State Address

In his first State of the State address to the Missouri General Assembly, Gov. Jay Nixon described his vision for leading the state through difficult budgetary challenges and his budget and policy priorities. The governor’s health care spending initiatives in his budget include $231 million to extend MO HealthNet coverage to 35,000 more working adults and 27,000 children. Nixon noted that “while this is the logical first step towards expanding health coverage, it won’t be the last step. We must continue to work together to further expand coverage and further drive down costs for Missouri families.”

Coverage of the Uninsured
In his address, Nixon announced that his proposed budget allocates $231.1 million, including $37 million in general revenue, to cover an additional 62,000 Missourians. Nixon noted that “we must begin the process of reducing the number of uninsured. It’s a massive problem, and in these difficult times, we won’t fix it overnight. But, we must make progress and start heading in the right direction once again.”

One component of the coverage initiative would raise the income eligibility standard for parents of Medicaid eligibile children to 50 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, the income eligibility standard is nearly 20 percent of the federal poverty level. The change is expected to cover 34,800 parents. The cost of covering these parents would be $142.9 million, of which $14.1 million would be general revenue.

Coverage also would be extended to an additional 27,600 children under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Uninsured children in households with incomes between 150 percent and 225 percent of the federal poverty level would no longer be required to pay premiums for SCHIP coverage. Also, the SCHIP premium structure for children between 225 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty level would be revised to be $50 per month. The cost of expanding SCHIP coverage would be $81.8 million, of which $22.7 million would be from general revenue.

In his speech, Nixon discussed the need for outreach to identify and recruit children who meet SCHIP eligibility standards but are not enrolled. He indicated that he would seek legislative authorization for a supplemental appropriation in the current fiscal year to begin the process of boosting SCHIP enrollment.

Health Workforce Development
The governor also discussed the need for more health care workers and specifically endorsed the “Caring for Missourians” health care workforce initiative developed by the state’s public colleges and universities. The governor’s budget calls for $39.7 million to fund the proposed new program, which would train more than 900 health care practitioners throughout the next five years.

MO HealthNet Payments
The MO HealthNet portion of the proposed budget offered by the Nixon administration proposes to spend $835 million on hospital services. The current fiscal year’s appropriation for hospital services is $697 million.

The administration’s budget narrative for the departments of Health and Senior Services, Mental Health and Social Services states that “this budget does not call for a reduction in provider rates.”

The MO HealthNet budget also includes an additional $35.7 million to fund additional hospital program costs, including $12.8 million in general revenue.