A group often critical of the Blunt Administration has praise for the governor’s plan to expand health care coverage, at least for the concept.
The Missouri Budget Project still wants to hear details. Executive Director Amy Blouin says Governor Blunt’s Insure Missouri could be very beneficial for Missouri and could help some Missourians who lost Medicaid coverage in 2005 regain health care. Yet Blouin wants some details, especially about how it is to be funded.
Blouin says states which have built upon a Medicaid structure have had some success in programs similar to Insure Missouri. She says states which have chosen to fund the program by providing incentives so that businesses offer health coverage to employees hasn’t worked. Blouin says it appears the Blunt Administration has a good funding structure, but she wants to see more details to determine if it is truly "fiscally sustainable".
Another big concern of the Missouri Budget Project is rural Missouri. Blouin notes the plan relies on HMO coverage, which doesn’t extend very far in rural Missouri. Blouin says that while the St. Louis and Kansas City areas have thorough HMO coverage, that coverage doesn’t extend very far into rural Missouri.
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