Medicaid expansion is dead for now in the Missouri House. Two separate House committees voted down efforts on Monday to expand Medicaid to 259-thousand Missourians next year and 41,000 more in later years.House Democratic Floor Leader Jake Hummel of St. Louis was the chief sponsor of a bill that would have fulfilled Governor Jay Nixon’s call to expand Medicaid in Missouri.
“We’re talking about the creation of 24-thousand jobs in the state of Missouri," said Hummel. "8.2 billion dollars in federal investment, 9.6 billion in additional economic activity.”
The GOP committee chairman, though, compared the Medicaid expansion bill to several Brinks trucks filled with money borrowed from China. It was voted down on a party-line vote.
Meanwhile, the House subcommittee that oversees the three state agencies that handle Medicaid approved their budgets for next year without the Governor’s proposed Medicaid expansion.
