Blunt outlines plan for Medicaid replacement

MO HealthNet would provide participants a central point of contact and a doctor who knows them personally, so that they may develop a plan for staying healthy and preventing illness. Participants would have access to a health care home that would provide regular check-ups, screenings and immunizations.

Through MO HealthNet, Blunt said he intends to expand health care coverage to the employed disabled and to foster children until they are 21, instead of until age 18 under the current system. More children also would be eligible for MO HealthNet coverage under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Overall, Blunt said he plans to work toward insuring Missouri’s 700,000 people without coverage by combining resources to lower the cost of insurance and pooling purchasing power of the uninsured to help them buy insurance. His initiative also calls for offering incentives – such as a franchise tax cut – to employers that provide health insurance, allowing people to take their insurance with them when they switch jobs and allowing employers and employees to pay insurance premiums with tax-free dollars.