Missouri House passes federal reimbursement allowance, sending to Gov. Parson for approval

The Missouri House gave final approval to a bill renewing key taxes necessary for funding the state’s Medicaid program.

This bill ensures that a $4.5 billion hole isn’t blown in the state budget that was approved last week. It will now be sent to Gov. Mike Parson for final review.

The federal reimbursement allowance, originally sponsored in the state Senate by Sen. Lincoln Hough, levies taxes on a variety of health care services, while also ensuring that the state receives federal matching funds for the Missouri Medicaid program.

“This has become an integral part of our state's budget, primarily funding a large piece of our Medicaid program,” said House Budget Chair Cody Smith, R-Carthage.

The Missouri House spent less than 10 minutes discussing the legislation before it was approved, a stark contrast from the 41-hour filibuster of the legislation in the Missouri Senate, as members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus held up progress on the bill in protest of their priorities not yet being considered.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, lamented the fact that a bill funding rural hospitals serving patients in areas that would otherwise become health care deserts has become a political bargaining chip, owing to the fact that it must be renewed periodically in order to continue the flow of funds.

“We have been doing the federal reimbursement allowance for much longer than I have ever been involved in politics, and it wasn't until just the past few years that this has become a political football,” Quade said.

The legislation received only token resistance from members such as Rep. Tony Lovasco, R-O’Fallon, who disapproved of the fact that the state was dependent upon federal funds through Medicaid to prop up the state’s health care system.

“The fact that we are yet again leaning on the federal government and their manufactured printed money in order to get by in Missouri is just not positive,” Lovasco said. “I get that this has to happen. It's going to pass, so this is a protest vote I'm making here.”

More: Missouri General Assembly passes the state budget, just hours before the deadline

While he stressed that he does not want to see Missouri hospitals go unfunded, Lovasco suggested that the state review its participation in the Medicaid program in the next five years until the federal reimbursement tax has to once again be renewed by the Missouri General Assembly.

“We cannot continue the path of just looking to the federal government to pay our bills and write us checks every time we need to get something done, because the reality is they don't have the money,” Lovasco said.

The legislation passed the House with bipartisan approval in a vote of 136-16, with Greene County House Reps. Bishop Davidson and Darin Chappell among the 16 Republicans voting against the legislation. All other Greene and Boone County representatives voted in favor of passing the bill.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri House passes key bill renewing taxes that fund health care