The issue of Medicaid Expansion will appear on the statewide Missouri ballot as Amendment 2 in the August 4, 2020 primary election. Below you can listen to a virtual forum on the ballot issue that was recorded July 21, 2020.
About the Medicaid Expansion forum:
Sponsored by Ozarks Technical Community College’s Social Sciences Department and Politically Active (a non-partisan student organization), the forum is part of a series of candidate and issue forums organized by 10 community organizations working together to engage and educate voters. KSMU is one of those 10 organizations, and aired the broadcast on the evening of July 27.
Forum Experts
- Speaking in support of Medicaid Expansion was CoxHealth president and CEO, Steve Edwards. Edwards represented "Yes on 2: Healthcare for Missouri," which describes itself as a grassroots, nonpartisan effort led by Missouri doctors, nurses, healthcare advocates, civic and business leaders, and Missourians who need healthcare.
- Speaking in opposition to Medicaid Expansion was Missouri Senator Bob Onder, representing United for Missouri, an organization committed to educating citizens about the impact of limited government. Onder is a physician and serves on Missouri's legislative Task Force for Examining Statewide Medicaid Delivery Models. The group United for Missouri says it supports policies that promote the American free enterprise system as the best way to ensure growth, opportunity and prosperity for Missourians.
For more information, contact OTC representatives Andrew Crocker, crockera@otc.edu or Cara Griffin, griffin@otc.edu
Candidate and Issue Forum Coalition Members
The coalition sponsoring this forum and others this year has 10 members:
· Be Civil, Be Heard program
· Drury University’s L.E. Meador Center for Politics & Citizenship
· Junior League of Springfield
· KSMU-Ozarks Public Radio
· Leadership Springfield
· League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri
· Missouri State University’s Public Affairs Office
· NAACP Springfield
· Ozarks Technical Community College’s Social Sciences Department and Politically Active student organization
· Springfield-Greene County Library District
About Amendment 2
The Medicaid expansion issue will be on the ballot August 4 – and if Missourians choose “yes,” then an estimated hundreds of thousands of more people would be eligible for government-paid health care in the Show-Me State.
Just a refresher: The Affordable Care Act lets states expand their Medicaid programs to cover adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level (that’s just over $17,236 individual annual income). The federal government will pay 90% of the costs for widening that program, and the state would be on the hook for 10%.
As of January 10, 2020, 36 states have chosen to expand their Medicaid programs, but Missouri is among the 14 that have not.