Push for Medicaid expansion continues beyond session : News

Push for Medicaid expansion continues beyond session : News

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But Republican lawmakers for years have expressed interest in retooling Missouri’s Medicaid program to add more market-based components, claiming that the current system is inefficient and plagued with fraud, abuse and waste.

“We want to have a program that has a free-market flavor to it,” said Sen. Gary Romine, a Republican from Farmington who has been picked to lead the Senate Committee on Medicaid Transformation and Reform. “The program we have is just ineffective.”

Romine said he believes the state has “the greatest opportunity in our history to reform health care in Missouri.” He said it is also an opportunity to ensure that state officials navigate the future of health care here, rather than ceding to the federal government on the issue.

“It’s an opportunity we should take,” he said.

Romine said his goal is to have Medicaid reform legislation introduced on the first day of session and among the first bills sent to the governor.