Pending Medicaid options for Missouri and all states were discussed at the November LINC Commission meeting by interim Missouri Dept. of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade.

The presentation covered Medcaid's historic enrollment trends over the past decade, costs and comparative use by children and adults.

A major portion of the presentation covered considerations involved in expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Health Care Act and how that might be affected by state health insurance exchanges, another provision of the federal health reform legislation.

Medicaid is about one-third of the entire state budget and provides extensive health insurance coverage for low-income children. It also is a major funding of nursing home care for adults.

The Missouri General Assembly will consider Medicaid expansion of Medicaid during the upcoming legislative session. The federal government is offering to pay over 90 percent of the costs of expansion up to 138% of the federal poverty level for states that expand coverage to all eligible groups.

Missouri's eligibility rate for some groups, particularly adults, is lower than that amount. The 2012 federal poverty level (100 percent) is $23,050 for a family of four.

Additional information

Presentation slides

Background information from the LINC Commission booklet

Video

The issue was discussed on Kansas City Week in Review on KCPT.

Here’s a link to the segment which gives a good perspective on the issue.

There also was a longer segment on KCPT’s Local Show.

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