JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A handful of state senators took to the floor on Monday to declare the idea of Medicaid expansion dead in Missouri.
But Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, in a Springfield News-Leader op-ed on Thursday, said Republicans should not say “no” so fast.
Pointing to the federal health care law’s cuts in payments to hospitals to cover uncompensated care, Silvey said Missouri should consider whether “there’s a way to stave off the unavoidable Obamacare cuts to our local hospitals.”
Silvey said it should be done in three parts: “Reforming our current Medicaid system,” “using federal money to cover new people in a creative way that relies on the free market and requires participation from the recipient rather than just another government handout,” and “achieving enough savings and/or using a new and different funding mechanism that would protect the taxpayers from unsustainable financial obligations in the future.”
Silvey said that the current plans being considered – like a bill being backed by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon and pushed by Rep. Noel Torpey, R-Independence – do not meet his criteria. But could there could be a way to move forward? Perhaps.
“Does that mean we should stop trying to find one and continue being perceived as the ‘Party of No?’,” he pondered. “You tell me.”
Silvey said, “health care has become one of those issues governed by sound bites rather than reality,” particularly in the political context of Obamacare. “Anything remotely associated with Obamacare is immediately rejected by some, even if it seeks to address the realities of the terrible situation we’ve been placed in by this bad law.”
Republicans opposed to Medicaid noted on Thursday that Missouri voters have opposed different components of the federal health care law when they have been before them on the ballot. Furthermore, a filibuster threat from five Senators would be hard to overcome.
Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, said plainly on Monday: “There is no path for Medicaid Expansion to occur in Missouri this year.”