State unveils Insure Missouri health care plan

Gov. Matt Blunt’s Insure Missouri health care plan will help eligible Missourians who make up to 185 percent of the poverty income level – or $38,203 for a family of four – to purchase their own insurance.

The program aims to provide access to affordable health insurance for nearly 200,000 Missourians.

“Five million Missourians have health coverage, but 719,000 are yet to be covered,” Blunt said in a news release.

The program will be introduced over the course of 15 months in three phases:

• Phase I, beginning in February, will cover working parents and caregivers with children in the home who have incomes up to 100 percent of poverty, or $20,650 for a family of four. This phase is expected to bring coverage to about 54,500 people.

• Phase II, starting in summer 2008, will expand access to working parents and other working adults who are not eligible for Medicare, with income levels to be set by the General Assembly. If the General Assembly fully embraces Insure Missouri, Phase II is expected to bring coverage to an additional 77,000 Missourians. Cost sharing by those assisted is not to exceed 5 percent of income.

• Phase III is designed to make health care more affordable for small-business owners and their employees. Eligibility will be determined by the General Assembly, and will include a plan to create a reinsurance program, which is a way to reduce catastrophic risk to insure employees and make premiums more affordable.

Benefits of Insure Missouri will compare to those offered to state employees and will include prescription drugs; physician, diagnostic and hospital services; urgent care; home health care; durable medical equipment; and mental health services.

Under Insure Missouri, participants will make affordable contributions based on their income. For those under 100 percent of poverty, the only cost sharing will be in the form of reasonable co-payments. For example, a family of four making about $17,500 a year would have no premiums, only co-payments aligned with federal guidelines of up to $3 per visit. A family of four making $35,000 a year would have cost sharing of no more than $145 a month.

Program enrollment will begin in February.

Program and application updates are available at www.insuremissouri.org.[[In-content Ad]]