With Medicaid expansion underway in Missouri, U.S. presses other states

WASHINGTON — About 17,000 Missourians have applied for Medicaid since August under expanded eligibility rules, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said Monday morning.

On Friday, Missouri’s Department of Social Services began processing applications for the state health insurance program under the new eligibility rules. With expansion officially underway after nearly a year of funding uncertainty and a court battle, the Biden administration is hoping to persuade a dozen other Republican holdout states to expand eligibility, more than a decade after the option was created by the Obama administration. Health and Human Services released a statement urging Missourians to apply for the program.

For those who do end up qualifying, their health care costs will be covered retroactively, starting from the date they applied.

“This is a win for all Missourians who have fought long and hard to gain their rightful access to quality health insurance made possible through the [Patient Protection and] Affordable Care Act,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

Administration officials touted the $968 million the state will receive over the next two years in federal incentive dollars through the American Rescue Plan. So far, however, the promise of federal incentives does not appear to have swayed politicians in remaining states that have not expanded, including Kansas.

Friday’s application processing came three months after the July 1 start date designated by voters as part of an amendment to the state constitution.

Still, Democrats and health care advocates celebrated the implementation of the plan extending state health coverage to about 275,000 low-income Missourians. Previously, nondisabled adults without children were largely excluded, eligible only if they earned no more than 22% of the federal poverty level, or about $5,800 for someone in a family of four.

Under expansion, those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — about $17,700 a year for a single person — can be covered.