Conservative groups sue to knock Medicaid expansion off Missouri ballot
A pair of conservative advocacy groups filed separate lawsuits this week asking a judge to remove a proposed constitutional amendment expanding Medicaid eligibility from the August ballot.
Jeremy Cady, director of Americans for Prosperity-Missouri, announced Tuesday that he filed a lawsuit alleging the Medicaid expansion proposal is unconstitutional because it would require the state to spend money without providing a revenue stream to pay for it.
“At a time when our state is already in dire economic straits,” Cady said, “we should not tie the hands of the legislature with this unconstitutional ballot initiative.”
A conservative nonprofit, United for Missouri, announced Wednesday it is filing a similar suit.
“The Missouri Constitution very clearly requires an initiative petition to identify a revenue source to fund the objectives of the initiative,” said Ryan Johnson, senior adviser to United for Missouri, later adding: “This initiative, as certified by Secretary of State Ashcroft, is unconstitutional on its face because it seeks to create what amounts to an unfunded liability in the Constitution.”
Missouri’s Medicaid program does not cover most adults without children. Only the disabled, children and parents with incomes under 22 percent of the federal poverty line — less than $5,800 a year for a family of four — are eligible.
Proponents of expanded Medicaid coverage in Missouri gathered nearly 350,000 signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot raising the level for coverage to 138 percent of the federal poverty line — about $36,000 for a family of four.
If voters approve the proposal in August, it is estimated that an additional 200,000 Missourians will be eligible for health care benefits.
The federal government would pick up 90 percent of the cost of expanded coverage. Critics of expansion say lawmakers will be forced to come up with Missouri’s 10 percent share, a figure that could be several hundred million dollars.
Supporters counter that studies have predicted that expansion could actually save the state money in the long run by drawing additional federal funding to cover a variety of health services currently paid for with state revenue.
According to one study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, during the first year of expansion in Louisiana the state saved $199 million.
Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the campaign supporting the Medicaid ballot measure, called the lawsuits “frivolous.”
“This attempt to take away the right of all Missourians to vote will not work,” Cardetti said. “It’s simply a last-ditch effort by people who know they cannot win in the court of public opinion.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 10:06 AM.
