Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Missouri News Network: Statehouse News for MPA Members
This report is written by Missouri School of Journalism students for publication by MPA member newspapers in print and online.
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Here is the latest from the Missouri News Network capitol coverage. In addition to daily coverage, toward the bottom we have features on the number of driving while texting tickets written under the new rule, the potential impact of federal Medicaid funding cuts on the Missouri budget, and a story about possible health care options for farmers.
If you have thoughts or questions, contact Fred Anklam at anklamf@missouri.edu.
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Multiday filibuster stalls Republican priorities in state Senate
By Mary McCue Bell and Anna Sago
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A multiday filibuster that began Wednesday by Missouri Senate Democrats stalled votes on two measures that would prohibit Missouri agencies from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and roll back workers’ sick leave protections and other provisions of Proposition A, which voters approved in November.
The episode, which began with DEI and ended with Prop A, ended early Thursday morning. In a news conference Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, praised the caucus for blocking a vote on House Bill 567, which would make changes to a voter-approved amendment to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and require employers to provide paid sick leave, for the second week in a row.
The series of debates come as the current law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave nears full implementation on May 1.
The filibuster began when Senate Republicans brought HB 742 to the floor. The bill specifies that state departments’ funds could not be used for DEI initiatives or ones that “promote preferential treatment based on certain characteristics.”
It also bars state departments from mandating or incentivizing the private sector to implement DEI programs, but does specify that agencies would not be prohibited from following federal laws or complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
After some time, that bill was put back on the calendar, and the Senate turned to HB 567.
Senate Democrats stood up again and talked on the floor of the Senate until after midnight, blocking lawmakers from taking a vote on the measure.
During the news conference, Beck said that negotiators reached a deal, but the bill that was printed didn’t contain what the parties had agreed upon.
Beck said that when he went to correct the discrepancy, Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, did not agree to the change. O’Laughlin was not in the original negotiations, and it was unclear how the language was changed.
“I don’t know, I can’t tell you how the language changed from where we believed we were ... I really don’t want to get into all these minutiae of all this stuff,” he said.
In an interview, O’Laughlin said it was Democrats who wanted to make last-minute changes.
“They took what they had talked about with our side of the aisle, they had the substitute written up, and then, as we’re looking at it, they came back in, and they wanted to change things that had been agreed to formally by the group who had been working on it,” she said. “So it was kind of like moving the goalpost.”
O’Laughlin said she’s still concerned about how the bill would impact business owners and plans to bring it up for discussion again, but lawmakers may not come to a resolution before sick leave goes into effect in May.
“We remain committed to trying to offset the most harmful parts of it,” she said. “So will we get that done by May 1? Maybe not, but we’re committed to getting it done before we adjourn for the year.”
The issue of voter-approved sick leave has brought out more partisan sparring during what has been a relatively calm legislative session. Democrats filibustered over the issue for nine hours last Wednesday.
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Questions of discrimination raised over bill focused on university campus groups
By Hannah Taylor
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Disagreement over two competing versions of legislation designed to “protect ideological perspectives” in college campus-based organizations surfaced during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.
Both bills were created to prohibit public institutions taking “adverse action” against belief-based organizations. As defined in the bills text, belief-based organizations are, “any political or ideological student association or any religious student association.”
“There is not a single student association in existence that is not protected by this bill,” said Rep. Darin Chappell, R-Rogersville, sponsor of House Bill 875, which was the subject of the hearing. “This bill just simply says that freedom of association is one of the premier fundamental rights of this country, and you do not lose that simply because you enrolled in a higher institution.”
But critics say Chappell’s bill could force schools to support groups that discriminate against students who weren’t allowed to join such groups, such as LGBTQ+ students who could be prohibited from joining certain religious-based groups. They prefer a Senate version of the bill that includes an anti-discriminatory provision.
Both bills prohibit enforcing any policy that denies certain “benefits” to these organizations that are readily available to other student associations.
“Benefits,” as described in HB 875, are any type of recognition, registration, use of facilities for meetings or speaking purposes, communication channels that are sanctioned by a public institution of higher learning, other assistance and aid.
HB 875 passed in the House late February with a vote of 108-47.
Most of the discussion Wednesday centered around the protection of free speech and funding these organizations with student fees.
“We’re not discriminating against anyone,” said Sen. Brad Hudson, R-Cape Fair. “We’re wanting everyone to have equal protection under the First Amendment as it should be.”
Sharon Jones, who testified in opposition on behalf of the Missouri NAACP State Conference, requested the committee look at the language added to the Senate version, SB 160. It is an anti-discriminatory clause stating that if there is evidence that an organization’s viewpoint would cause campus disruption or “interfere with the rights of others,” the protections would not apply.
If included, Jones said it would, “make us neutral on the bill.”
That sentiment was shared among other witnesses who testified in opposition to HB 875.
“It’s something we think balances the needs of all groups on campus and doesn’t do anything to impact the underlying intent of the two bills,” Jones said.
Another concern brought up by those in opposition was that leadership in university-sanctioned student groups could be restricted to leaders who shared the ideology of those groups.
Chappell said this bill doesn’t mean students “can’t choose their leaders.”
“It means that students cannot be compelled by the university to choose leaders that do not represent their views and desires,” Chappell said. “Not just in religion, but politically, economically (and) sociologically.”
HB 875 will head to the Senate chamber for further discussion if passed through committee.
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Policymakers gather to hear projections for Missouri's growing tech industry
By Charlie Dahlgren
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Over the next five years, Missouri is expected to be a top 10 state for technology manufacturing job growth. That’s according to a new, 103-page report released by the Missouri Chamber Foundation on Wednesday.
The report said Missouri is attractive to tech companies because it has lower costs for businesses and their employees, but warns that a lack of technology infrastructure in some areas could hold back progress.
Policymakers, business leaders and economic developers gathered at the Capitol to celebrate the launch of the fourth annual Technology2030 report. The tech industry is important to the state economy, the report said, and stakeholders assembled to hear recommendations on supporting the industry’s proliferation.
Missouri’s status as a low-cost, low-tax state makes it attractive to technology companies looking to move, said Ted Abernathy, a certified economic developer with the consultancy firm Economic Leadership.
“You’re in an excellent position in the state of Missouri to take advantage of change,” Abernathy said. “It’s a time when the tech sector is moving around the country (and) is looking for places to grow. So, it makes an exciting time for Missouri.”
Another focus of the report was on domestic migration to Missouri. Prior to 2020, Missouri was losing residents to other states, but that trend has dramatically reversed. According to the report, Missouri’s low cost of living and low tax rate likely attracted the new residents as remote work became more popular.
However, it’s not all good news for Missouri’s tech prospects. The report highlights areas where Missouri falls behind other states competing for valued tech businesses and taxpayers. Karen Buschmann, Missouri Chamber Foundation’s executive director, said the job of attracting new businesses is not over.
“We have a lot to be proud of with our tech sector and a lot to be hopeful about for our future economic growth,” Buschmann said. “But we also have a lot of work to do, so we’re ready to roll up our sleeves.
Recognizing the continued work needed in the state, the Technology2030 report, for the first time, included seven policy recommendations to aid Missouri’s tech competitiveness.
One recommendation addresses area that is one of the state’s biggest weaknesses when it comes to attracting the tech industry: infrastructure and digital equity. The report said Missouri ranks 42nd in the country for the percentage of the population without access to affordable broadband.
In response, the report calls for an increase in state funding and grants to increase access across the state.
“Tech is not just in the cities; tech is everywhere,” Buschmann said. “Tech is in the Bootheel; tech is in Hannibal. It permeates across our entire great state.”
Also included is a recommendation to turn metro areas, including Columbia, into “Tech Zones” with special job incentives, infrastructure investments and fast-tracked business permits.
Other recommendations include focusing recruitment and outreach, leveraging existing Missouri industries and establishing a state-backed AI research center to attract federal and private funding.
“We have found in the past that if you have a strategy, if you have recommendations to shoot for, that makes it more likely that you’ll be successful,” Buschmann said.
The speakers, which included members of the Missouri General Assembly, also took a moment to reflect on how quickly the tech landscape has changed in Missouri. Developments in the tech industry happen fast, and Abernathy said it’s up to Missouri to take advantage of the opportunity.
“We’re all in the dark trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.” Abernathy said. “The only thing I can guarantee is that it’s going to happen. So we’re going to have to be nimble; we’re going to have to work together.”
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Senate bill would increase allowed sale, purchase of methamphetamine precursors
By Hannah Taylor
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Senate Committee on Families, Seniors and Health heard about a bill Wednesday that would increase the allowed annual sale and purchase of methamphetamine precursors, which are chemicals that can be used to create the drug.
Sponsored by Sen. Mike Henderson, R-Desloge, Senate Bill 726 would increase the allowed limit of the sale and purchase of meth precursors from 43.2 grams to 61.2 grams over a year.
“This increase in purchase limits brings Missouri in line with surrounding states while leaving in place common sense limits,” Henderson said. “It allows an equivalent eight-month annual supply of Sudafed for those who suffer from allergies, like I’m doing right now.”
Methamphetamine can be produced using chemicals and other products that have been illegally purchased or obtained from legitimate sources, like convenience stores. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, precursor chemicals that are used to manufacture meth include pseudoephedrine from cold medicines, anhydrous ammonia and red phosphorus.
SB 726 would also require any manufacturer of a meth precursor that is sold in or sold into Missouri to pay a monthly fee to an administration in charge of monitoring the National Precursor Log Exchange, called NPLEx.
Thirty-eight states have utilized the system, which is free to users. The goal is to prevent illegal sales of pseudoephedrine and identify anyone involved in meth production.
Right now, the fees paid by manufacturers are voluntary. This policy would mandate the monthly fees paid by the producer per box of product containing any detectable quantity of ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine or pseudoephedrine, all of which are or were common in decongestants, weight loss drugs, and low blood pressure medications.
Carlos Gutierrez, vice president of state government affairs for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, testified in favor of the policy. Gutierrez said Missouri’s current annual purchase limit of 43.2 grams is one of the most restrictive in the country.
There is no federal limit of annual pseudoephedrine purchases.
If voted upon favorably in committee, SB 726 will head to the Senate chamber for discussion.
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Governor's school funding task force assembles slowly
By Scout Hudson
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Mike Kehoe vowed to rewrite the foundation formula, the equation that determines how the state funds public schools, during his State of the State speech in January.
Almost three months later, he has yet to announce his selections for a task force charged with reviewing public school funding and recommending changes.
The School Funding Modernization Task Force is his solution to what he sees as a stagnant, dysfunctional formula. The task force aims to rewrite the formula which has not been substantively revised in 20 years.
Gabby Picard, spokesperson for the governor, told the Missourian that Kehoe’s appointees will be announced in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the legislature has nominated four members to serve on the committee that will reengineer how schools receive state funding.
In late February, Speaker of the House Jon Patterson appointed Reps. Marlene Terry, D-St. Louis, and Ed Lewis, R-Moberly.
Terry was the first African American elected to the Riverview Gardens School Board, where she served in various leadership positions for nine years, including School Board president.
Lewis worked as a high school educator for 32 years prior to being elected to the House in 2020. He is vice chair of the House subcommittee for education appropriations.
Lewis said he has yet to receive communication from Kehoe about his fellow appointees and the task force’s timeline. He forecasts the team will be set in motion in a few weeks, near the end of the legislative session.
“It’s going to be a lot of work and a lot of time. I don’t think you’re going to make everybody happy because of the nature of this beast,” Lewis said.
Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, appointed Sens. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, and Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit.
Black spent 33 years as an agriculture educator before being elected to the Senate in 2022.
Fitzwater has a background in local politics, small businesses and youth ministry. He and his wife homeschool their three children.
O’Laughlin expressed her support for the task force, telling the Missourian an update to the school funding formula was “long overdue.”
According to his executive order creating the task force, Kehoe will appoint a superintendent from a large urban school and one from a small rural school, a teacher, a representative for charter schools, an advocate for school choice and representatives from the business and agricultural sectors.
The Missouri State Board of Education will appoint its own representative.
Missouri educators
The spot reserved for a teacher is not further outlined. The executive order does not detail if the educator is to be from a public, private or charter school, their level of experience or the grades they teach.
Todd Fuller, the director of marketing and communications for the Missouri State Teacher’s Association, said he feels the appointed teacher should come from a public school.
“I think that school teachers and public school teachers find themselves underrepresented in these situations. I don’t think that’s ultimately beneficial to the formula that’s created or to the makeup of teachers in our state,” Fuller said.
Public school teachers make up the majority of the state’s education workforce: 72,000 teachers serve more than 870,000 students in Missouri’s public schools.
“If we’re not representing public school teachers then we’re not representing the largest part of the workforce in our state for education and for public education,” Fuller said.
Per state law, funds received through the formula must be used primarily to pay teachers’ salaries.
Urban and rural representation
The executive order mandates representatives from the business and agriculture sectors be included in the task force.
Fuller explained the inclusion of these representatives may be an effort to align the formula with the interests of Missouri’s rural and urban districts.
Seventy percent of school districts in the state are categorized as rural, but combined, these districts serve just 21% of the state’s students, according to a study from St. Louis University.
The foundation formula aims to factor in cost of living in school districts. In the equation, this is referred to as the dollar value modifier.
This modifier provides additional funds to school districts located in areas with a higher cost of living without restricting funds to districts with lower costs of living.
To do so, cost of living is determined by dividing the average wage per job of the district’s area by the state’s median wage. Wages act as a proxy to determine an individual purchasing power in the area.
The formula also considers the amount of funds contributed by the district’s local community, primarily through property tax.
Districts that are located in areas with higher home values, thus generating more property tax, typically receive less state funding.
Rural districts usually receive more state funding due to their smaller tax base than populous, urban districts.
The current property tax model is frozen at 2005 levels — an attempt to hold the amount of funding a district receives steady as tax rates fluctuate yearly.
The freeze is a part of the formula’s “hold-harmless” provision. Since 2007, roughly 200 of the state’s 518 districts are ensured to receive at least the amount of funding they did in the 2005-06 school year.
Limited funding
Over the past 20 years, Missouri’s spending on public education has increased as a dollar amount, but it has shrunk in proportion to total spending.
Kehoe proposed a $200 million increase in funding for the foundation formula, bringing the total to more than $4 billion for fiscal year 2026.
The proposed increase falls short of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s suggested increase of $500 million.
The legislature is in the final stages of settling on fiscal year 2026 funding for the state. Senate leaders last week announced plans to fully fund the foundation formula, despite Kehoe’s decision, endorsed by the House, to leave $300 million out of the proposed budget for public schools. A final resolution on the spending will be made by May 9.
David Luther, director of communications for the Missouri Association of School Administrators, said his team is in a “wait-and-see pattern” as the task force is put together.
“To see any kind of major changes would be certainly cause for us to face some different challenges, so we’re hopeful that the folks over at the Capitol building can take a look at this and find alternative means to make sure that the foundation formula is fully funded,” he said.
DESE is requesting the money in part to level the state adequacy target — a key multiplier in the foundation formula. The state adequacy target is the minimum amount of funding a student needs to meet basic state requirements.
“The target is kind of the heart of the foundation formula,” Lewis said. “Having an outside entity or department being able to, by rules they promulgate, change that drastically by one year is definitely one issue about the foundation formula that needs to be addressed.
The target is set at $7,145 by the formula for the 2026 fiscal year, but the House adjusted the figure to $6,760.
House Democrats’ attempts to raise the target were voted down. The Senate decision to add the money means a compromise will need to be worked out between the two chambers.
The task force is charged with submitting its final report with recommendations for the new funding model to Kehoe by Dec. 1, 2026.
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Patrol issues 450 tickets under new texting-while-driving ban
By Natanya Friedheim
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued 450 citations for drivers violating a new law prohibiting texting and other phone use while driving from Jan. 1 to April 15.
The first three months of the year also saw a 32% decrease in Highway Patrol responses to crashes involving distracted driving compared to the same period last year. State troopers responded to 923 such crashes last year during this time period compared to 627 this year.
“We believe Siddens Bening Hands-Free Law contributed to at least a portion of that decrease,” said Capt. Scott White, the agency’s public information director.
The law passed in 2023, but only warnings were issued prior to 2025. It bans hand-held use of a cellphone or “electronic communication device.”
Like the state’s seat belt law, police can’t pull someone over or issue a ticket solely for texting or holding a phone while driving. The officer needs another violation, such as speeding.
“This law really has no teeth,” said Warren Douglas of O’Fallon, who spent years advocating for the law’s passage. Douglas’ daughter, Kendall Douglas, was killed in a 2018 crash on Mother’s Day. He and other advocates say they hoped the violation would be a primary offense.
Douglas and White were among the roughly 30 people gathered for an event hosted by AAA at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Nine chairs draped in black fabric were placed at the front of the crowd. On each chair sat a poster with a photo of someone killed in a crash caused by distracted driving. This year, five chairs covered in white fabric were placed in front of the black fabric chairs to represent lives saved by the law.
Gov. Mike Kehoe shared his own experience learning his daughters were in an accident that totaled their car.
“That’s a moment as a parent you never forget,” he told the crowd.
Neither sustained injuries, and the passenger in the other car recovered from their injuries.
“It’s hard to get policymakers in this building to understand what that feeling’s about unless it’s happened to them, and then they have a very real sense of awareness,” he said. He encouraged the advocates gathered to continue bringing awareness to elected officials.
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House approves bill limiting some nondisclosure agreements
By Olivia Maillet
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The House voted in favor of a bill Tuesday that would make it illegal to enforce nondisclosure agreements related to child sexual abuse claims.
House Bill 709, sponsored by Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, passed quickly with broad support from both parties.
“(The children) need to be able to tell their story, to heal,” Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia, said.
Smith said the nondisclosure agreements allow predators to remain unknown if they relocate.
Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, offered support for the bill by noting her expertise as a social worker who has worked in child welfare.
“I hope we go a whole lot further in the future,” Ingle said.
Texas lawmakers are considering similar legislation.
“This is an opportunity for Missouri to be the first,” Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, said.
Lewis said this bill deserved a “unanimous vote.” It moves over to the Senate for consideration.
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Unknown future of federal Medicaid funding puts Missouri in a bind
By Molly Gibbs
Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The future of federal Medicaid funding is unclear, and any substantial changes could leave Missouri’s budget and citizens’ coverage in a precarious situation.
Missouri is one of three states with Medicaid expansion enshrined in its constitution, meaning the state must provide coverage for adults in the expansion eligibility group, regardless of federal funding.
As the Missouri General Assembly finalizes the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, potential federal funding cuts are troubling legislators, particularly Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
As reported in the Missouri Independent, Hough said in a hearing April 16 that the committee can only do so much to prepare Missouri’s budget for potential changes at the federal level.
“How do you plan for a Medicaid reimbursement on an expanded population that goes down by, say, 20% and costs us $600 million?” he asked.
Medicaid
Medicaid is a partnership between the federal government and states that provides low-income Americans with public health insurance coverage. Missouri has participated in the program since 1967 through what is now known as MoHealthNet. According to the Missouri Foundation for Health, 1 in 5 Missourians are covered by the state’s Medicaid program.
Low-income children, custodial parents, pregnant women, adults 65 and over and those with physical or mental disabilities are eligible to receive MoHealthNet services. Those populations must meet income criteria set by the federal government based on poverty guidelines. The federal government covers 65% of the costs for these groups while the state covers the other 35%.
Coverage expanded in 2021 to include Missouri adults under 65 with household incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty line.
Voters approved Medicaid expansion through a constitutional amendment in 2020. The Missouri General Assembly did not initially fund this expansion, and the state was forced to delay the coverage.
In August 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of the expanded program, requiring the state to fund it and start accepting expansion applications. As of October 2024, there were about 340,000 adults enrolled in the adult expansion group, according to the Missouri Foundation for Health.
The federal government foots 90% of the bill for this group, with the state covering 10%. In fiscal year 2024, this meant the state paid about $311 million to cover the adult expansion group while the federal government paid the remaining $2.8 billion dollars.
Because voters put coverage of the expanded group in the Missouri Constitution, if the federal government changes how much of the expansion group cost they cover, the state would be forced to make up the difference.
State spending
Hough has been warning about the impending financial squeeze, particularly with Congress eyeing cuts to Medicaid.
During debate on the Senate floor on April 1, he shared the potential impact on the state budget if the state was forced to pay for a greater share of the Medicaid expansion group. Hough predicted if the federal government moved to a 60/40 split, similar to other Medicaid groups, it would cost the state an additional $1 billion.
“That is a fairly scary financial forecast if you are the one trying to balance the state’s budget,” Hough said. “Because there is a whole lotta other services, a whole lotta other communities that you’re just gonna have to look at and say, ‘sorry.’”
Timothy McBride is a professor in the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis and a health economist. McBride said there are two options available to Missouri if federal spending is cut significantly: Raise taxes or cut Medicaid benefits to those outside the expansion group.
The second option, McBride said, is more likely as legislators are working to cut taxes in the state, not impose more.
By diminishing benefits to certain Medicaid groups, the state can reduce its overall Medicaid spending.
“They could literally cut off people that are eligible,” McBride said. “Another option is to cut the payment rate to providers.”
A third option, he said, is to cut optional services like dental and mental health coverage.
“Frankly if the cuts are on the order of magnitude we’re talking about, they probably have to do all of the above,” McBride said.
None of these cuts would impact the Medicaid expansion group, meaning the state would remain in compliance with the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2020.
Roughly one million remaining Missourians who relied on Medicaid in state fiscal year 2024 would bear the brunt of cuts if they are made.
Federal budget cuts
The federal budget resolution, approved by the U.S. Senate on April 5 and the U.S. House on April 10, calls for about $4 billion in spending cuts over the next decade. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson promised House Republicans they would find ways to cut spending by $1.5 trillion. It isn’t clear where these cuts will come from as Congress drafts bills to meet its budgetary goals.
One part of the resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce the federal deficit by at least $880 billion over 10 years.
According to KFF Health News, the budget resolution does not specifically mention Medicaid, but of the committees’ $8.6 trillion in mandatory spending, where reductions could come from, $8.2 trillion goes to Medicaid. Observers say large cuts to Medicaid are seemingly the only way the House could meet its spending reduction goals in this area.
Cuts could be made by limiting eligibility, imposing work requirements and reducing access to services among other provisions. If and how cuts occur will determine whether Hough’s state budget warnings come into play, and Missouri feels the full impact of federal budget cuts.
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Missouri Farm Bureau wants to offer health insurance alternatives for members
By Jana Rose Schleis
Missouri News Network
The Missouri Farm Bureau wants to offer members unregulated health plans and needs a state law to do so. The health plans would not be the same as health insurance — which must comply with the Affordable Care Act — and patient advocates say that’s cause for concern.
Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins said bureaus in 10 states currently offer health plans, and he wants to be number 11.
Hawkins said farmers’ incomes change from year to year, affecting their ability to qualify for subsidies on the health insurance marketplace.
“We have seen growing interest among Farm Bureau members who are seeking ways to address this tremendous risk in their lives,” he said.
In order to offer a health plan that does not comply with the federal Affordable Care Act — such as the one the Missouri Farm Bureau is proposing — companies need state lawmakers to approve. But Missouri patient advocates warn unregulated health plans can discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and are not subject to minimum coverage standards that include preventative care.
Emily Kalmer is the Missouri government relations director for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network and said the health plans don’t have to comply with consumer and patient protections established in Missouri law.
“This bill allows the sale of unregulated health plans, not legally insurance, and they would leave Missourians, including cancer patients, exposed to medical and financial harm,” Kalmer said.
Challenges to farmer health coverage
The Missouri Farm Bureau estimates nearly 8% of Missourians go without health coverage.
State Sen. Kurtis Gregory, R-Marshall, said the Missouri Farm Bureau could offer health plans to that population. Gregory is sponsoring the Senate Bill 79 that would allow for bureau health plans, and said farmers and ranchers often fall in the gap of those who don’t qualify for Medicaid but cannot obtain subsidies for health insurance on the marketplace.
“For some of our farm and ranch families, someone — instead of staying home working on the farm like they want to — has to have a job in town or some other form of getting health coverage,” he said.
Hawkins said lack of access to affordable health coverage compounds economic challenges for farmers.
“What's heartbreaking to me is that we have members who today can't afford health coverage and are going uninsured,” Hawkins said. “They are one catastrophic event or one medical emergency away from potentially losing the farm.”
The Missouri Farm Bureau health plans would only be available to the organization’s members and the bureau expects the plans to "cost 30% less than comparable unsubsidized plans" on the health insurance marketplace.
The company currently offers insurance policies for auto, farm, home, life and business. Hawkins said bureau health plans would provide options for rural counties that don’t have many health policy choices.
“The beauty of this is the fact that we are not creating something new,” he said, referring to bureaus in other states that offer health plans. “I don't plan to reinvent the wheel.”
Gregory’s bill is geared toward the Missouri Farm Bureau but would also allow for other qualifying organizations to offer health plans. Groups must have more than 100,000 dues-paying members and at least $500 million in assets.
Gregory has put the proposal forward numerous times and said last year it passed the Missouri House of Representatives. This year, it began the legislative process in the Senate and passed. It needs to pass the House and be signed by the governor to become law.
Risks of unregulated health coverage
Patient advocacy organizations in Missouri — such as the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association — warn against the drawbacks to unregulated health plans and have testified in opposition to Gregory’s bill.
If the bill passes, the health plans offered by the Missouri Farm Bureau would not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act. Kalmer said that means they are less comprehensive than health insurance plans on the marketplace.
“We've seen ways that insurance companies have not covered important issues for cancer patients and cancer screening, and we've advocated to change those laws,” Kalmer said. “Now, these plans would be able to avoid all of those protections.”
Since the farm bureau health plans are unregulated in the states where they’re offered, Kalmer said there are limited records for how they fare. She said the health plans may look cheaper on the front end but could expose patients to unexpected costs.
Kalmer said Missouri Farm Bureau health plans could also have an impact on the health insurance marketplace.
“They can cherry pick younger, healthier individuals and when you remove those healthy people from the insurance pool … it can drive up premiums in that market,” Kalmer said.
Laura Turner is director of advocacy for Missouri with the American Lung Association, and said unregulated health plans leave Missourians with less recourse and consumer protections if they are denied coverage or dropped from their plan.
“If they were going to be regulated by the insurance commissioner, that would not be as much of an issue because they would have to follow the same rules that other insurance plans would follow,” Turner said.
Turner said the Missouri Farm Bureau is looking for a carve out from those regulations. She agrees barriers that are keeping Missourians from affordable health care should be addressed.
“Why not deal with those barriers rather than presenting a sub par product?” Turner said. “I want people to get health care coverage, but I want it to be quality coverage too. So, let's work together to make that possible.”
