By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

Passage of a health-care reform bill designed to take the place of the state’s Medicaid provisions is drawing mixed reactions from legislators and those who work in health-care fields.

Some legislators call it long-needed reform for a broken Medicaid system, while others view the new program as misguided and insufficient.

Gov. Matt Blunt first proposed the MO HealthNet legislation last year, saying it would take the place of the state’s current Medicaid provisions, which are set to end in June 2008.

Ruth Ehresman is the director of health and budgetary policy for the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit research group that analyzes how public policy affects low- and moderate-income Missourians. She said in a phone interview that she had hoped the health-care reform would address the needs of the more than 114,000 people who lost their Medicaid coverage during state cuts in 2005. Ehresman said MO HealthNet will not do that.

She said the new program offers some benefits but will restore coverage to only about 10,000 of those who lost their Medicaid coverage. She said the legislation falls short of the label “health-care reform.”

‘A false choice’

Ehresman said other elements of the program will be beneficial to an estimated 90,000 low-income women who receive health services such as annual Pap smears, and screenings for cervical and breast cancer. MO HealthNet also will increase reimbursement to health-care providers as an incentive to increase the number of physicians who treat patients receiving state aid.

But Ehresman said that rather than increasing the services for people who still qualify for Medicaid, the General Assembly’s time would have been better spent finding ways to help those who were cut from the program — or better yet, finding a way to do both.

“That’s setting us up for a false choice,” Ehresman said. “Why should we have to make the choice of either more people or more service?”

Rep. Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, was on the House special committee that debated the bill. He said he’s angry about the MO HealthNet legislation and what he called the apparent disregard in both the House and the Senate for the people who live with the health-care crisis every day.

“This (health care) is the single largest problem in my lifetime, and we’re not going to do anything about it,” Talboy said. “Restoring 6 percent of the pie is not restoration. It’s not meaningful. We bled these people out (in 2005).”

Prevention and wellness

Proponents of MO HealthNet say the program focuses on wellness, prevention and personal responsibility, and will save lives and money. The system establishes a professional health-care advocate system for every person enrolled and a reward system for recipients who improve their health by earning points. They will get those points through making appointments, getting screenings and reaching health goals set by the patient and the health-care advocate. The points will transfer to credits on a debit card that can be used for co-pays, prescription drugs and other health-related expenses.