Dear Jay Nixon: Cover kids now

Thu., Jul. 23 2009 @ 11:22AM

Some Missourians aren't waiting around for Washington to fix health care -- they're telling Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon he can reform it now.

Kansas City's Partnership for Children has been passing around a letter to the governor (here's a PDF), arguing that he could cover an additional 90,000 kids by taking advantage of some of his special governor privileges. That way, he wouldn't have to go to the legislature, which shot down many of his proposals this year. (After observing their behavior, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that House Republicans qualified as children themselves.)

It's wonky, but the letter lays out five specific things the governor or his administration could do.

1. Implement Express Lane Eligibility through data matches with other entitlement programs. The Department of Social Services estimates this could provide coverage to more than 27,000 children -- the same number of children you proposed through your expansion in this year's legislative session.
2. Further develop partnerships with community organizations like ours to find and enroll eligible, uninsured children.
3. Eliminate the "2 price quotes" requirement for families seeking Children's Health Insurance Program coverage.
4. Eliminate the five-year waiting period for legal permanent resident children and pregnant women, consistent with current Missouri law.
5. Eliminate the Transitional Medical Assistance quarterly reporting requirement.

So far, at least 50 organizations have signed the letter, which was mailed to the governor earlier this week, according to the Partnership.

Nixon's spokesman, Scott Holste, said the administration was already working on these same issues.

"The governor believes that we need to have health-care coverage of Missouri's children, and the Department of Social Services has been working on several of these very proposals," Holste said. "And the administration also has been in contact with a number of different constituent groups that are also trying to work on behalf of children. It's certainly something that the governor and his administration are taking a close look at."

Which we were happy to hear, since covering more kids was one of Nixon's campaign promises.