Lawsuit filed to reinstate Missouri federal unemployment benefits ksdk.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ksdk.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Court Sides with Voters, Thwarts GOP Plan to Stop Working People from Getting Health Care
Court Sides with Voters, Thwarts GOP Plan to Stop Working People from Getting Health Care
The people of Missouri voted to expand healthcare for low-income residents. Republicans tried to stop it but were overruled by the state supreme court
Peter Wade, provided by
FacebookTwitterEmail
Despite attempts by state Republicans to block it, more than 275,000 working Missourians are eligible to receive health care through the state’s Medicaid program, the state supreme court has ruled.
Last summer, 53 percent of Missouri voters supported a constitutional amendment to expand the state’s Medicaid program, part of the Affordable Care Act. That expansion was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of July 2021. But the state’s legislature refused to appropriate funds for it even though the federal government will cover 90 percent of the costs and the Republican governor, Mike Parson, withd
Campaign workers David Woodruff, left, and Jason White, right, deliver boxes of Medicaid expansion initiative signatures to the Missouri secretary of state s office in Jefferson City, Mo. on May 1, 2020.
Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that an additional 275,000 low-income individuals in the state are again eligible for publicly-funded health care.
Missouri voters successfully pushed through a state constitutional amendment on the ballot last August to adopt Medicaid expansion, but the Republican-dominated legislature refused to implement it, prompting Gov. Mike Parson, also a Republican, to pull the plug on plans to bolster the health care program.
(Thirty-eight states, including red ones, have either expanded Medicaid or are in the process of expanding it.)
By Tami Luhby, CNN
Missouri must expand Medicaid to low-income residents, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday, finding that a state ballot initiative that voters approved last year was constitutional.
The decision overturned a lower court ruling that said the ballot measure approving expansion had violated state law.
“The court has said the law is very clear, and that sends a very clear message to both the governor and the legislature that they need to get on with implementation,” said Chuck Hatfield, a partner at Stinson law firm and one of the attorneys who brought the current suit, stressing that the decision was 7-0.
Missouri Supreme Court Stops GOP from Blocking Medicaid Expansion rollingstone.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rollingstone.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.