Mo. chamber hires Bond for Medicaid expansion efforts

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry has hired former U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond to round up Republican support for Medicaid expansion in the Show-Me State.

“Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly are the ones who are the most hesitant about the expansion and there are few Republicans who are as respected as Sen. Bond,” chamber President and CEO Daniel Mehan said in a news release.

Bond, a two-term Missouri governor before his four terms in the U.S. Senate, shares criticisms with the chamber of the Affordable Care Act, according to the release. The chamber reluctantly backed Medicaid expansion last March, saying the state is giving up federal money otherwise. Earlier this month, the chamber included reform of the health system in its list of legislative priorities for the current session of the General Assembly.

“While I was and still am one of the loudest opponents of Obamacare, I’m getting involved in Medicaid reform now because if our state sits on the sidelines, I’m concerned hospitals in rural and inner-city Missouri won’t survive,” Bond said in the release.

The chamber cited a study by the Commonwealth Fund, which found Missouri stands to lose $2.2 billion in federal money every year by 2022 if it does not expand Medicaid under the ACA.

In his State of the State address last week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon reissued his call for Medicaid expansion, saying state taxpayer money is helping other states, but not the Show-Me State.

States such as Arkansas and Iowa have employed alternative Medicaid models. Arkansas was granted a waiver from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2013 to purchase private insurance for those who qualified, and last month, the state of Iowa was approved to secure funds for households at the federal poverty level, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.