TOPEKA —Voters on Tuesday made Missouri the 38th state to approve expanding Medicaid health care coverage to thousands more low-income adults.
Support for the constitutional amendment means that as many as 250,000 more adults could choose to be covered by government health insurance beginning in July 2021, according to estimates from the state auditor.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly issued a statement on the outcome of the vote.
“Last night, Missourians voted to join our neighbors in Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma to become the 39th state to expand Medicaid. Every single Kansas voter must ask themselves why, year after year, Republican leadership in the Legislature has blocked expansion."
“Their obstruction has left 150,000 Kansans without access to healthcare during a global health crisis. They have forfeited $4 billion Kansas taxpayer dollars. They have rejected 13,000 new jobs that we could bring to Kansas."
“Republican leadership in the Legislature must stop playing politics with Kansans’ lives and support Medicaid expansion.”
The ballot proposal in Missouri will expand eligibility under the terms of the 2010 federal health care law signed by President Barack Obama. That law provides a higher-than-usual federal funding share for states that expand Medicaid coverage to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, about $17,600 for an individual or $30,000 for a family of three.
Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who opposes Medicaid expansion and won the Republican primary for a full term Tuesday, moved the vote on the proposal up from the Nov. 3 general election to Tuesday’s primary. Parson said the earlier vote would give the state more time to financially prepare for Medicaid expansion, if it passes. He said his decision was not about politics.