Children's health care bill moves to Senate

The House passed the last of 13 budget bills last week.

By Greg Young

Published March 31, 2009

Last week, the Missouri House of Representatives passed the entirety of the 13 budget bills, which will now move to the Missouri Senate.

As it has been throughout the budget debate, there has been controversy about the cuts to state funding for children's health insurance. Before the budget bills were voted on and passed, two Democrat-led amendments to restore the health care cuts and add more children to the state health insurance plan failed on almost direct party line votes, the first failing 87-70 and the second failing 85-73.

Republicans such as Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, argued expansion to the program ignored the real program of increasing health care costs. Flook also argued Missouri had a "generous" health care program compared to the other states.

"Is there an antitrust legislation going on against the insurance industry and their draconian referral agreements that drive up price?" Flook said in a floor speech last week. "No there is not. They are saying we'll just throw money in."

Other Republicans, such as Sen. Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield, were concerned about the overall size of the budget deficit and are reluctant to expand any programs at all.

"We started this year $800 million in the hole and we need to keep that in mind as we look at adding programs or adding the size of this year's budget," Purgason said.

But Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, said he was open to adding Nixon's proposal for the expansion of children's health care in the budget.

"Insofar we can cover Missourians without any additional general revenue I think it's worthy of consideration," Nodler said.

Sen. Yvonne Wilson, D-Kansas City, and fellow Democrats are concerned about the lack of expansion of children's health care.

Wilson, who is on the Senate Appropriations Committee, admitted she has not looked at the budget bills that passed the House last week with her fellow Democrats on the committee.

"As an old school teacher I know that if children don't feel good, then they cannot be that successful in the classroom," Wilson said.

Other Democrats, including Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, focused on the business aspect of expanding health care programs. Kelly said small businesses often are forced to shoulder the load of health care costs, something that hurts businesses across the state.

"I think it's a bad business decision," Kelly said.

Now that the budget is in the Senate, Nodler, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is likely to be one of the key players in the budget process.

Nodler said the legislation is on track to reach the governor, but the stimulus package is making passing the budget more difficult.

"It is a more exaggerated process because of the fiscal stabilization funds," Nodler said.

Nodler also said he was focused on getting the highest amount of federal dollars he could to Missouri, as long as it didn't place Missouri in a budget problem down the road by putting money in state services and having the stimulus money gone in a few years.

"We need to make sure we use all the federal dollars available to us," Nodler said.