A new bill may restrict newly expanded Medicaid insurance – St. Louis American

While Medicaid insurance was expanded to 230,000 newly eligible Missourians in October, enrollment has been slow while a new measure will make it difficult for those who qualify to gain coverage.

According to the Department of Social Services Caseload Counter, more than 58,000 Missourians have enrolled in Medicaid as of Wednesday. Enrollment has been slow as only 25% of newly eligible Missourians have signed up for Medicaid.

Angela Ellerson, Affinia Healthcare’s director of Outreach Services, leads the healthcare provider’s Medicaid enrollment initiatives.

“A lot of people are under the impression that they have time to put in their application if they don’t walk in and do it, and so we’re making confident calls in addition to holding weekly events to engage those clients to come in and enroll,” she said. 

Outreach staff assist with Medicaid enrollment, Gateway to Better Health and Health Insurance Marketplace applications, as well as information about Affinia Healthcare services.

Dr. Kendra Holmes, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Affinia Healthcare, spoke about why Medicaid enrollment numbers have been low so far.

“Nationally, the states that have legislators that supported the Medicaid expansion, and Missouri did not originally vote to expand Medicaid which is why it had to go to a vote where it was finally expanded, so from a legislative standpoint there has not been a statewide focus on getting the word out about the application process,” she said.

The American reported on the long road to implementation began last April. House Republicans resisted the will of the voters by removing $1.9 billion allocated for the program’s July expansion when crafting the 2022 state budget. 

According to Holmes, a lot of this has fallen on organizations like federally-qualified health centers to spread the word to the community about Medicaid eligibility and enrollment. 

Additionally, the House continues to try and impose restrictions on the Medicaid expansion. House Joint Resolution 117 is a measure would put Medicaid expansion at risk. It would place the issue back on the ballot, make expansion subject to appropriations and enact work requirements for Medicaid.

“The federal government has already decided that they would make the decision that they would not allow work requirements, so this is probably a non-starter,” Dr. Angela Brown, a Washington University physician and director of the Hypertension Clinic, said. “They have tried this for years now…the federal government stepped in because people were actually losing coverage when they were working because they didn’t understand the process of how to report that they were working.”

Local organizations are strategizing to take action against this legislature that would hinder coverage from vulnerable populations, such as cancer patients.

“The voters approved access to expanded Medicaid through the ballot measure in 2020, but this would take back to the ballot the Medicaid expansion constitutional amendment…now this joint resolution is trying to have it decided on an annual basis if people can be eligible for this access to healthcare,” Emily Kalmer, government relations director at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said. “Now that we know this is giving cancer patients access to screenings and treatments, we don’t want to send this back to the ballot and put that care at-risk.”

According to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, an estimated 37,480 Missourians will be diagnosed with cancer this year, which makes the Medicaid expansion more important than ever in care for the uninsured.