The legislature has voted to eliminate a state committee overseeing the Medicaid program, or as it’s called MoHealthNet.
The MoHealthNet Oversight Committee was set up in 2006 to analyze the program and suggest improvements. But some legislators including the author of the 2006 bill–Senator Rob Schaaf of St. Joseph– say it has done little.
It’s being replaced by a committee of legislators. Schaaf says the new joint committee will do a better job than special interests who have been part of the board.
But Senator Joseph Keaveny, who says he never misses a meeting of the committee as it exists now, charges it is being eliminated for political reasons.
The bill making the change also eliminates several other committees and commissions that lawmakers say have outlived their authorities to exist, or outlived their usefulness.