One thing Republicans and Democrats in the Missouri House agree on is that the legislature must renew Federal Reimbursement Allowance (FRA) legislation this year, or a massive hole will be blown out of the state’s operating budget.
House Speaker Dean Plocher and Minority Floor Leader Crystal Quade agree the legislature must pass an FRA extension this year. (Photos: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The FRA has been passed 17 times since 1992. It is a tax paid by Medicaid providers in Missouri which the federal government more than matches in paying it back to the state. That helps to cover the MO HealthNet program, and additional allowances also cover nursing facilities, pharmacy costs, and ambulance services.
Missourians living with disabilities could no longer have to reject raises and promotions, or even choose not to get married, in order to keep receiving needed state assistance, under legislation now awaiting the governor’s action.
Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Among legislation that was approved by the House and Senate last month was a provision to change the state’s Ticket to Work health insurance program within MO HealthNet. It would increase the limit on how much a person can earn before they lose benefits under that program. It would also not count up to $50,000 of a spouse’s income toward that limit.
Such state benefits provide to some Missourians with disabilities things like personal care attendants, medication, services, and equipment that allow them to have a job in the first place. Those Missourians must sometimes reject raises or promotions because the changes in income would not offset the benefits they would lose.
Another provision would require state agencies to use an “employment first” policy, directing them to recruit and keep employees with disabilities and create competitive ways to integrate them into workforces.
This legislation received broad, bipartisan support in both chambers. In the House they were carried by Springfield Republican Melanie Stinnett. She said legislators have been growing more aware of how state assistance programs designed to help Missourians are sometimes holding them back.
Supporters of the employment first language said it was long overdue and would allow Missourians with disabilities to work to their fullest extent, which benefits the whole state.
Governor Mike Parson (R) has until July 14 to act on Senate Bill 106 and Senate Bill 45, both of which contain these provisions. He could sign them into law or veto them, or let them become law without his action. If they become law, the provisions would become effective on August 28.
In the House, proposals that would help Missourians with disabilities, those with low incomes, and new mothers on state assistance, are being given every chance to become law before the end of the session next week. The chamber has voted to add those pieces of legislation to several bills that are still in play in these final days.
Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Among those is a transitional program meant to help people get off of state assistance gradually as their income increases. House members say the state’s assistance programs for low-income Missourians trap people in poverty because if they accept a raise that puts them above a program’s limits, they could lose more in state benefits than they gain from a raise.
Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The House has voted this week to add that language to two bills. It did the same for language sponsored by Representative Melanie Stinnett (R-Springfield) that could allow individuals with disabilities to finally be able to advance in their careers without worry of losing state assistance.
The changes to the state’s Ticket to Work health insurance program within MO HealthNet would increase the limit to how much a person can earn before they lose benefits, and would not count up to $50,000 of a spouse’s income toward that limit. It would also direct state agencies to have policies to recruit and keep employees with disabilities and create competitive ways to integrate them into workforces.
Representative Alex Riley (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Also supported in the House this week has been a bipartisan plan to extend post-partum coverage under MO HealthNet or Show-Me Healthy Babies from 60 days to a year.
Representative Tony Lovasco (R-O’Fallon) said even very conservative Republicans like himself could get behind all of these proposals, which don’t expand the state’s assistance programs.
Representative Keri Ingle (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications
The House has voted to expand access to job opportunities and greater salaries to Missourians with disabilities by passing legislation that, backers say, will let those people simply live their lives.
Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bills 970 and 971 make changes to the state’s Ticket to Work health insurance program within MO HealthNet. The key provisions increase the limit to how much a person can earn before they would lose benefits under Ticket to Work and disregard up to $50,000 of a spouse’s income, relative to that limit. It will also direct state agencies to have policies to recruit and keep employees with disabilities and create competitive ways to integrate them into workforces.
The bills are carried by Representative Melanie Stinnett (R-Springfield), whose career in healthcare and as a speech-language pathologist has included a great deal of focus on serving the disabled community. She said she is honored to sponsor this legislation.
The legislation has been offered in the House for about eight years. One person who has carried it throughout that time, Representative Sarah Unsicker (D-Shrewsbury), said individuals with disabilities have Missouri’s lowest unemployment rate, largely due to discrimination and lack of accommodation and understanding.
Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (D-St. Louis) is a Missourian living and working with a disability and has also for several years sponsored this legislation. She said some people in the disabled community choose not to get married because if they do while the current limits are in place, they will lose their health benefits under Ticket to Work.
She said individuals need the benefits provided by that coverage to function daily, to hold jobs, and to live with dignity. She said she often thinks of a friend of hers who is in her 20s and has a master’s degree.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is sponsoring legislation that they hope will save the lives of women and infants in Missouri, and in doing so, move the state farther from the bottom in the nation in infant and maternal mortality.
Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson (R) (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Their proposals would extend MO HealthNet or Show-Me Healthy Babies coverage for low-income pregnant women to a full year after the end of their pregnancy. Currently that coverage stops after 60 days.
Representative LaKeySha Bosley (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Governor Mike Parson (R) in his State of the State Address earlier this month said, “we are heartbroken to be failing,” in the area of infant mortality, with Missouri ranking 44th in the nation for its “abnormally high” rate.
Freshman representative Melanie Stinnett (R-Springfield) said maternal healthcare was an issue that voters talked to her about leading up to her election in November.
Representative Patty Lewis (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The Republican sponsors of the bill acknowledge that it also relates to their party’s identity regarding its pro-life stance. Bishop Davidson (R-Republic) said his party is often criticized as only supporting life before birth, but this bill is one thing that demonstrates otherwise.
Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representative Bishop Davidson (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Patterson observes that the broad appeal of this plan isn’t limited to the House but extends to the Senate, where two versions have been filed and have already received a hearing. He and the other sponsors share great optimism that this will pass this year.
A bipartisan, collaborative effort to extend Medicaid benefits for postpartum substance abuse treatment has been approved by the Missouri House.
Representatives Marsha Haefner, Martha Stevens, Cora Faith Walker, and Jay Barnes (photos; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications – click for larger version)
House Bill 2280 extends MO HealthNet benefits for pregnant women who are receiving substance abuse treatment within 60 days of giving birth for up to 12 additional months. Any participating woman must follow the treatment in order to benefit.
The bill’s projected cost is more than $4-million dollars through 2021, but Haefner noted it would save the state money that would have gone to caring for children who could go to state care if their mothers aren’t afforded treatment, and other cost avoidance. She said the budget the House is debating this week also includes money to pay for the projected costs to extend this coverage.
The bill has been sent to the Senate for its consideration. If it becomes law, the state will have to seek a waiver from the federal government to allow for the program to be created and implemented. Missouri would be the first state to seek such a waiver.
Haefner is hopeful the state could get an answer from the federal government by the beginning of 2019.