Despite Legislative Setbacks, Nixon Urges Medicaid Expansion

On the same day the Missouri House voted to keep the 2014 fiscal year budget from being sent back to a state legislative committee, leaving Governor Jay Nixon's proposal to expand Medicaid out of the budget, Nixon came to the Kirkwood Community Center to continue pressing his case.

Nixon wants Missouri to take advantage of federal funding available through the Affordable Care Act which would cover 100 percent of the costs associated with expanding Medicaid over the next several years. The Nixon administration says the expansion would help 300,000 Missourians who currently don't have health insurance, and would protect against cuts in federal reimbursements to hospitals which treat the uninsured.

Opponents in the state legislature say Medicaid is a program that needs fixing, not expansion. 

"What we’re asking for is flexibility for the state to design its own solution — we do not believe it’s prudent to double-down on a broken system,” Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempseytold the Jefferson City News-Tribune earlier this month.

While Governor Nixon has cultivated the endorsements of some Chambers of Commerce at the state and local level, he has not yet secured the backing of the Kirkwood-Des Peres Chamber, which will take the issue up in a committee meeting in the coming weeks.