Missouri Budget Project Federal and State Policy Update
By Cara | September 29, 2009
September 25, 2009
In this issue:
1. Census data reveals inequities across state in income and health insurance status
2. TAKE ACTION! Urge Governor Nixon to make administrative changes that will insure more children in Missouri
3. The Missouri Budget Project has moved. Note our new address!
1. Census data reveals inequities across state in income and health insurance status
Data released on September 22, 2009 allows comparisons by Congressional Districts. Click here to see a comparison of median income and health insurance status.
2. TAKE ACTION! Urge Governor Nixon to make administrative changes that will insure more children in Missouri
Nearly two months ago, a coalition of individuals and organizations from across the state signed a letter encouraging Governor Nixon to implement administrative policies that would help provide health insurance to the 100,000 Missouri kids who qualify for CHIP or Medicaid but remain uninsured.
Since that time, there have been conversations with his staff, but no action has been taken.
Our voices have not been heard and it’s time to turn up the volume. To show Governor Nixon how important it is to insure all Missouri children, this coalition is asking individual groups and individual organizations to send letter(s) to his office.
Attached is a sample draft that you are welcome to use as a starting point for a letter to Governor Nixon.
Please review the letter, bring it to the attention of the boards you serve on, the organizations you work for, your family and your friends. The more letters, the greater the impact our efforts will have. Modify the letter as you see fit, print it, sign it, put a stamp on it, and send it to Jefferson City!
It is also important that we get the letters to all the people who need to see them. So please send a copy of your letter to the following individuals.
John Watson
Chief of Staff
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Jeff Harris
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Daniel Hall, DSS Liaison
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Ron Levy, DSS Director
P.O. Box 1527
Jefferson City, MO
65102-1527
Ian McCaslin, MO HealthNet Director
P.O. Box 6500
Jefferson City, MO
65102-6500
With your help, we can put Children’s Health Insurance back on the priority list in Jefferson City! Thanks much!!
Sample letter
_____(date)
The Honorable Governor Jay Nixon
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Dear Governor Nixon,
In January of this year, at the start of the legislative session you stated, “In Missouri, there are 100,000 children among our uninsured who are right now eligible for health coverage under Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, but are not signed up. That’s unacceptable.”
I/We couldn’t agree more.
I/We share in your disappointment that the legislature did not implement your proposal to expand health insurance coverage to 27,000 kids, an important step towards your promise of covering Missouri’s children. Even without the cooperation of the legislature, much could be done. Fortunately, the new federal CHIP law provides states with new options and additional federal funds to help Missouri provide health insurance to children in our communities, most of whom are already eligible for CHIP. Therefore, I/we request that you adopt as many of those options as possible, including at least the following approaches:
I/We encourage you to implement “Express Lane Eligibility” to reach out to children who are currently eligible for CHIP or Medicaid. Covering eligible children is simply the right thing to do.
In your speech last January you also said that, “We’re going to tear down the roadblocks that are preventing eligible families from registering their children for S-CHIP”. I/We support this effort as well, and I/we encourage you to eliminate the cumbersome and bureaucratic “2 price quotes” requirement for families seeking CHIP coverage. This is an unnecessary step that is a burden for families, and it is bothersome to insurance companies to ask them to participate in such an exercise.
The cumbersome reporting requirements for Transitional Medicaid are an unnecessary roadblock for families, as well as an administrative burden for the State. Therefore I/we urge you to adopt the new federal option to provide a year of Transitional Medicaid for needy families without the current bureaucratic requirements.
Lastly, I/we urge you to take advantage of the incentives given to Missouri under the reauthorized Federal CHIP law and eliminate the five-year waiting period that legal permanent resident children and pregnant women must endure before being covered. These are individuals who have played by the rules, and they are being punished needlessly.
We urge you to take these and other available steps to cover Missouri’s uninsured children. I/we stand beside you in support of your efforts to, “expand access to affordable health care, particularly for the 150,000 Missouri children who are uninsured today.”
Sincerely,
NAME/ORGANIZATION
3. The Missouri Budget Project has moved!
OUR NEW ADDRESS IS CITY HOUSE, 3534 WASHINGTON AVENUE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63103. Our phone number and email addresses remain the same.
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