Mismanaged Medicaid Payments Demonstrate Need for Reform
Proponents of Medicaid expansion seek to add over 300,000 adults to the already broken Medicaid system without any true reforms. Such rash expansion would cost Missouri millions without solving the problems that currently plague the program, such as waste, fraud, and improper payments. A recent federal audit found that Missouri should return $21.4 million in Medicaid payments to the federal government because the funds were improperly administered. Read more here.
Honoring Parkway Seniors for Their Leadership in Substance Abuse Prevention
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Earlier this month, Representative Ron Hicks and I had the opportunity to present Courtesy Resolutions from the Missouri House of Representatives to fourteen Parkway School District seniors who participated in the district’s Safe and Drug-Free Programs (SADF) for all four years of high school. This unique programming helps students develop the skills they need to make wise decisions about their health and empowers them to be leaders in their school and community. Read more here.
Proposed Tobacco Tax Cannot Sustainably Fund Preschool AssistanceU.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently visited St. Louis to promote the President’s education agenda, which includes a proposal to make preschool financially accessible for low- and middle-income families with four-year-old children. The federal funds, which Missouri would have to contribute $4.8 million to access, will come from a proposed tobacco tax.
While universal early childhood education is a worthy goal, funding this program through a tobacco tax is short-sighted and regressive. Excise taxes are generally implemented to discourage the taxed behavior, so their revenues are meant to decline over time as people give up the habit or product. As the tobacco tax generates less money over time, lawmakers will have to find alternative funding by increasing taxes, cutting from other programs, or even eliminating the preschool assistance.
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This is not generally an issue I am heavily involved in, but when it was brought to my attention I wrote a letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the problems with funding a new program through the tobacco tax. You can read the letter here.
Understanding the Interim Committee on St. Louis Governance and Taxation’s GoalsThe formation of the Interim Joint Committee on St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area Governance and Taxation has sparked concern that this committee will recommend merging St. Louis City and County. The committee’s mission is to authorize an independent study of St. Louis’s taxation and governance system and to develop recommendations, if any are needed, for future legislative action based on public input. This committee has no preordained outcomes and recommendations will largely be based on public testimony. It is essential that we hear from citizens as the committee process moves forward. Read more here.
Rep. Allen Appointed to the Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation
To investigate possible reforms to the broken Medicaid system, the Missouri House of Representatives has developed two interim committees that will listen to public testimony and recommend proposals for future legislative action. Read more here.