Tagged: affordable care act

Missourians are already seeing changes in healthcare coverage since the Affordable Care Act was first implemented. According to Ryan Barker,  Director of Health Policy for the Missouri Foundation for Health, changes already affecting Missourians include provisions allowing young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26, Medicare coverage of preventative services without a co-pay, and a new rule that requires some insurance providers to partially reimburse customers if they don’t limit overhead and administrative costs.

Missouri’s participation in a federal Medicaid expansion would be an economic boon for the state and even pay for itself, according to a new report commissioned by the Missouri Hospital Association and the Missouri Foundation for Health. Under the federal health law, states can choose whether or not to expand Medicaid, which provides health insurance to the poor and disabled. The federal government would fully pay for an expansion during the first few years, but many state lawmakers, like Republican house speaker Tim Jones, worry about the long-term costs.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill says there will be a political price to pay for state legislators who allow the federal government to run the state’s health insurance exchange.

In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, the Democratic Senator said the federal health care law is going to be implemented and the state of the Missouri has the opportunity to get resources from the federal government.

A new report says Missouri's Medicaid costs could rise by 6.6 percent over 10 years if the state fully implements the federal health care law.

But the report also says almost half of that increase will occur even if Missouri does not expand Medicaid eligibility for adults.

The report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Urban Institute says Missouri can expect to spend an additional $1.2 billion from 2013 to 2022 as more people join the Medicaid rolls because of the federal health care law.