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Kids Count report: child abuse down, high school dropouts up

May 17, 2009 By

The annual KidsCount report is out. It provides county-by-county data on the health and wellbeing of Missouri’schildren.

While child abuseand neglect cases in Missouriare down from last year, high school dropout rates are higher.

The Kids Countreport compares information and statistical trends on the conditions of ourstate’s children and families in all 114 counties and the City of Saint Louis.

St. Charles County,just outside of St. Louis,did the best this year. Not the case just a few miles away. St. Louis City scored lowest "across the board," says Scott Gee, director of Citizens for Missouri’sChildren. He says the areas that ranked the lowest are also the state’spoorest.

However, St. Louis did improve its numbers in all categories — save high school dropout rates — over last year.

The report breaksdown the rates for infant mortality, low birth weight, teen pregnancy, students on free or reduced lunches, babies born to mothers without a high school diploma, child deaths, children removed from homes, and violent deaths to teens.

The study also provides a breakout for various economic factors, demographics, family support systems, health and mental health.

For example, St. Louis had 1,226 high school dropouts, or 11.6 percent. St. Charles County had 449 dropouts, or 2.8 percent.

The report states that every day in Missouri:
18 babies are born with a low birth weight
41 children are born to mothers who lack high school diplomas
2 babies die before their ?rst birthday
15 children are removed from their homes
127 children receive attention from the Mo. Department of Social Services
   due to reports of child abuse and neglect
1 child or teen dies
29 teens drop out of school
25 teens between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth
212,369 children live in poverty

Gee says the reportserves local and state policymakers, as well as not-for-profits at the locallevel in identifying needs and boosting certain programs.

To see how your county ranks and individual breakdowns, visit the Citizens for Missouri’s Children Web site.

 

Jessica Machetta reports [Download/listen MP3]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

House, in rare move, adjourns early on next-to-last day

May 14, 2009 By

In a rare move, the House adjourned on the next-to-last day of the legislative session at 4:30pm, extremely early as the session winds down from days to hours.

House Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley (R-Perryville) says the House simply ran out of legislation to work on, since major bills now are in conference with the Senate. Two big bills hang in the balance of negotiators this evening: the jobs bill and a health care measure. Some have speculated that the two are linked, though no one has confirmed that.

The economic development bill has taken many forms and has been a source of contention between the House and Senate. The House moved quickly on economic development, approving HB 191 in early February. The Senate never brought the bill to a vote after several senators raised concerns about the effectiveness of tax credits. A stripped down version moved through the House, but also stalled in the Senate. Hopes now are pinned on SB 377 , which includes tax credit reform.

The health care legislation, SB 306 , took an odd route to become a center-piece of this legislative session. The House rejected a proposal by Governor Nixon to expand Medicaid eligibility to 35,000 Missourians even though the proposal would not have cost the state any general revenue. The plan envisioned using a voluntary increase in the hospital provider tax totaling $52 million to draw down about $94 million in federal funds. That would have been enough to raise Medicaid eligibility to 50% of the federal poverty level.

The dispute over the Medicaid expansion plan threatened to derail the $23 billion state budget. A compromise worked out between House and Senate negotiators dropped the Medicaid proposal in exchange for a promise by House leadership to consider a different approach, SB 306. The House is pushing to essentially expand the state high-risk pool to cover approximately 100,000 Missourians considered uninsurable, because of pre-existing conditions. It would also extend coverage to about 21,000 poor Missourians now without health coverage.

Tilley says the House also is interested in a local government bill, a transportation bill and a judiciary bill.

Download/listen House Majority Floor Leader Steven Tilley (R-Perryville) on early adjournment (2 min MP3)

Filed Under: Legislature, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Health care measure moves forward

May 13, 2009 By

A health care measure moves forward in the House, barely, and heads for a conference with the Senate as time runs out this legislative session.

The House narrowly approved HCS SS SCS SB 306 , with only one vote to spare. This bill rose higher on the priority list when House members balked at expanding Medicaid. House leadership agreed to consider SB 306 in exchange for the Senate dropping an expansion of Medicaid from the social services budget. That agreement allowed the budget to be approved last week.

Rep. Doug Ervin (R-Kearney) sponsors the bill in the House. He told colleagues during House floor debate that the state needs to expand the Show Me Health Care Initiative.

"There’s some who advocate that we should just do a straight Medicaid expansion. I’m not in that camp," Ervin said. "There are others who advocate that we should take a free-market approach and cover those healthy adults, able-bodied adults. I’m still not buying that."

Ervin said that SB 306 provides a framework for health care for those earning up to 225% of the federal poverty level. To receive benefits from the Show Me Health Care Initiative, a person must qualify for the high-risk insurance pool by being without insurance for six months. Ervin said that while the proposal to expand Medicaid would have covered 35,000 Missourians, the provisions in this bill would provide a way for 21,000 poor Missourians to receive health care coverage while providing health insurance access to approximately 100,000 Missourians who cannot get health insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

The formula for who would receive coverage and how the state would pay for the program is rather complicated; prompting Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) to says Medicaid expansion would have been a simpler route.

"This plan does very little to help hard-working, but low paid folks afford insurance," Still stated during House floor debate.

Differences between the House and Senate approach to health care must be worked out in the next three days to pass this legislative session.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Filed Under: Legislature, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

House Republicans accuse Governor of improper lobbying

May 7, 2009 By

House Republicans accuse Governor Nixon of crossing the line in lobbying for an expansion of Medicaid.

House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt (R-Blue Springs) took to the floor to criticize Nixon Administration lobbying on the social services budget. Pratt even made reference to the alleged federal investigation underway at the Capitol.

"Oh, how I wish the FBI was wondering the halls today," Pratt stated during a floor speech. "You know what they would find? The FBI would find, walking the halls today, comments from the governor’s office; ‘What do you need?’ ‘What can I do for you?’ ‘Can I give you a job is there something special I can give to you?’"

Pratt’s comments fanned the flames of an already emotional and tense House, which had lost decorum. Members quit listening quietly to each other speak, but applauded statements with which they agreed, shouted and booed those they didn’t and even let out a few catcalls. The contentious day ended with defeat of HB 11 , sending it back to conference with the Senate.

Less than a minute into his floor speech, Pratt was interrupted by Minority Floor Leader Paul LeVota (D-Independence) who raised a point of order.

"I would like to ask the Pro Tem to apologize to our elected governor, the person who represents our state for any type of wrongdoing," LeVota demanded. "That’s shameful!"

Pratt continued, expanding on his accusation against Governor Nixon and his administration.

"At the very best, the comments about this bill around the Capitol today, at the very, very best are sleazy and distasteful," Pratt said. "At the very worst, it’s a violation of the law."

More interruptions occurred. More Democrats raised points of order, objecting strongly to the accusation.

Pratt afterward expanded on his accusations in interviews with Capitol reporters, saying that Nixon Administration lobbyists made inappropriate comments to at least two freshmen Republican state representatives.

Freshman Republican Chris Molendorp (R-Raymore) said Governor Nixon Deputy Chief of Staff Dustin Allison seemed to offer a job for his vote.

"They were hopeful I could vote for this (HB 11) and if I was interested in a future career change, he was sure the governor would view that very favorably," Molendorp said.

Molendorp said he agonized over HB 11, stating he was torn by the bill. Molendorp speculated the governor’s office might have targeted him, because he is a former member of a local hospital board and is a health insurance agent.

Fellow Republican freshman Anne Zerr (R-St. Charles) told a similar story, saying she was approached by State Labor and Industrial Relations Department lobbyist Chris Moreno about HB 11.

"Then the young man said, ‘You know, the governor likes to reward people who share his views.’" Zerr said. She said she told Moreno she couldn’t support the bill. "And then, the young man said ‘I’m prepared to make a deal right now.’"

Zerr speculated that she was targeted, because of her moderate voting record.

Governor Nixon’s spokesman, Jack Cardetti, denied the charge, though he confirmed that Allison spoke with Molendorp about HB 11 .

"Dustin pulled the representative off (the House floor) and talked to him about how important this was to the governor, but at no time did he offer anything in exchange for that vote," Cardetti told the Missourinet.

Cardetti also acknowledged that Moreno spoke with Zerr, but he denied Moreno offered Zerr a deal in exchange for a vote.

"So certainly, people from the governor’s office from the administration lobbied both Republicans and Democrats, but at no time was anything ever promised or exchanged for that vote," Cardetti said. "We wanted them to vote on that based on what was best to move the state of Missouri forward."

Cardetti said the accusation made by Pratt was clearly meant to be a distraction from the issue, which he said was expanding Medicaid to 35,000 Missourians at no cost to the state. HB 11 contained a provision that would leverage a voluntary increase in the hospital tax to draw down federal funds.

Cardetti insisted the administration never offered any representative anything in exchange for a vote.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)
Download/listen Speaker Pro Tem Pratt makes accusation on House floor (9 min MP3)
Download/listen Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti response (4 min MP3)

Filed Under: Legislature Tagged With: ,

Compromise reached to keep budget process moving

May 7, 2009 By

A compromise has been reached to move the budget process along and complete the $23 billion state budget by tomorrow evening, but whether it will expand health care remains to be seen.

Appropriations/Budget Committee Chairmen: Senator Gary Nodler (L) and Representative Allen Icet (R) The House rejected on a party-line vote HB 11 , the social services budget that contained a provision to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 35,000 Missourians. The expansion relied on an additional hospital tax; still House Republicans saw it as an unnecessary expansion of Medicaid. After the rejection of HB 11, House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) requested the Senate return to the negotiating table.

Senate-House budget negotiators reconvened in the Legislative Library at the Capitol in an effort to hammer out a compromise that could keep the budget process moving while considering an expansion of health care coverage. Negotiators have agreed to remove an expansion of Medicaid in the social services budget, which would allow HB 11 to pass the House. In exchange, the House has agreed to consider SB 306 , a more market-drive expansion of health care.

House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet of Wildwood says it’s an effort to resolve a problem that threatened the budget process. He said it was a compromise between doing nothing after the rejection of HB 11 in the House and the Senate position of expanding Medicaid.

"We’re agreeing to try to do something through SB 306, to reach that compromise," Icet told reporters after the conference committee meeting.

Majority House Republicans rejected the proposed Medicaid expansion, but Democrat Chris Kelly of Columbia, a House budget negotiator, agreed to the deal even though it’s unsure what the results might be.

"I think there are people of good faith on the other side; Republicans of good faith," said Kelly. "They have to move a difficult caucus on this. And so, we can’t drop the ball this early."

The question remains: can Icet deliver Republican votes for the Senate bill to expand health care?

"I will certainly try, because I’ve agreed to this," said Icet.

House Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley (R-Perryville) told reporters he plans to bring SB 306 before the House Monday and send it to conference to see if an agreement can be reached that is acceptable to the House, the Senate and the governor’s office.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:15 MP3)

Filed Under: Legislature, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,
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