{"id":8472,"date":"2026-01-14T16:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/state-general-revenue-needed-for-first-time-to-fund-missouri-medicaid-expansion\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:06:42","slug":"state-general-revenue-needed-for-first-time-to-fund-missouri-medicaid-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/state-general-revenue-needed-for-first-time-to-fund-missouri-medicaid-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"State general revenue needed for first time to fund Missouri Medicaid expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Medicaid<\/p>\n

Demonstrators stand outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City on July 1, 2021 and hold signs urging Gov. Mike Parson to fund voter-approved Medicaid expansion (Tessa Weinberg\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n

A milestone moment for the Missouri state budget passed unmentioned Wednesday in a House committee \u2014 for the first time since Medicaid expansion was <\/span>passed by voters in 2020<\/span><\/a>, the general revenue fund is being tapped to pay for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the four years that the voter-mandated program has been set aside in a separate line item, lawmakers have appropriated $13.5 billion and the number of people covered has grown to more than 363,000. Until Gov. Mike Kehoe <\/span>presented his budget<\/span><\/a> this week, there was never a request to use general revenue \u2014 money from income and sales taxes \u2014 for the program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, federal COVID aid, plus money from taxes on medical providers, has paid the state\u2019s 10% share.<\/span><\/p>\n

The money for eligibility expansion is part of the $1.1 billion supplemental spending request for the overall Medicaid program. The number of people served by the expansion program has been growing, and it will take $79.9 million of general revenue \u2014 matched by $409 million in federal funding \u2014 to finish out the fiscal year, according to Kehoe\u2019s budget request.<\/span><\/p>\n

No one on the 31-member House Budget Committee questioned or commented on the request during a hearing on Kehoe\u2019s $3.3 billion supplemental spending plan for all of state government. Kehoe is asking for $572 million in general revenue in that total.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers are being asked to send the bill to Kehoe\u2019s desk by March 15 \u2014 far earlier than normal \u2014 because there is a federal grant for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Kansas City that must be spent within 45 days of being received.<\/span><\/p>\n

The money is not in the state\u2019s hands yet but it is expected by the end of the month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Missouri attorney general wants $1 million to furnish new St. Louis offices<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That the general revenue request for Medicaid expansion drew no questions is evidence that the program \u2014 which majority Republicans funded in 2021 only after an <\/span>order from the Missouri Supreme Court <\/span><\/a>\u2014 has worked for the state, said state Rep. Betsy Fogle of Springfield, ranking Democrat on the budget committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bWhen you look at increased access to health care, increased access to hospital and primary care clinics across the state, I think Medicaid expansion has been a positive for Missourians,\u201d Fogle said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The entire additional cost for Medicaid to complete the year drew only one question during the hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is, are these in line with what we\u2019ve seen in previous supplementals, or are any of these spikes that should raise an eyebrow,\u201d asked state Rep. Del Taylor, a Democrat from St. Louis.<\/span><\/p>\n

The request is similar to past years, state Budget Director Dan Haug said. Part of it is because lawmakers lowball the overall cost of the program each year to help lower the overall budget total, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it is some increased cost, as we\u2019ve seen in other lines, like our health care costs for our state employees,\u201d Haug said. \u201cMedical costs just are going up in various areas around the country, not just in Medicaid programs, but in private pay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the federal government pays 90% of the cost of coverage for adults from 18 to 64 with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. That is about $21,600 for a single person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expansion in Missouri occurred during the federal health emergency for COVID-19, when the state was receiving extra federal funds for Medicaid because no one on the program could be removed. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act, the signature COVD recovery bill under President Joe Biden, boosted Missouri\u2019s federal Medicaid funding because it enacted expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Missouri banked those funds and, along with funds generated from taxes on medical providers, has paid its share of Medicaid expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The federal budget reconciliation act, called the Big Beautiful Bill by President Donald Trump, will bring changes to the expansion program, including work requirements and more frequent eligibility reviews. The supplemental spending plan includes $131 million \u2014 with $9 million in general revenue \u2014 to implement changes to Medicaid expansion and other social welfare programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The funding will be used to rewrite application systems and provide additional services to prevent errors in eligibility determinations that could cost the state. In the coming year Missouri will have to take on half the cost of administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps.<\/span><\/p>\n

And depending on the error rate for eligibility determinations for SNAP, the state may have to pay a share of the cost for food benefits themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the rules of the game now, and we just have to play by them and do the best we can to maximize the revenue coming down to Missouri, or minimize the error rates so that we don\u2019t get the penalties, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Haug said to explain the appropriation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fogle said she was disappointed Haug could not estimate the cost to taxpayers if error rates are not reduced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose are hundreds, hundreds of millions of dollars of consequences,\u201d Fogle said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The supplemental spending bill\u2019s other big items are $916 million in various line items, most of it federal funding, to pay for recovery from disasters like the <\/span>May 16 tornado<\/span><\/a> in St. Louis, and nearly $640 million to provide a full year of funding to the Missouri Department of Transportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers tried to separate federal road aid into its own fund last year following a <\/span>court decision<\/span><\/a> that all money in the state road fund \u201cstands appropriated\u201d and can be spent by the Highways and Transportation Commission as needed. The legislation for a separate fund didn\u2019t pass, but the spending bills for the year did not reflect that.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Rep. Don Mayhew, a Republican from Crocker, said he\u2019s inclined to deny the supplemental request.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheoretically they can go and pay this bill, if I read the decision correctly,\u201d Mayhew said. \u201cI would like to see that happen, to see if they truly are \u2018stand appropriated.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Haug said the money was requested because it keeps state budgeting cleaner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to take this out and see what happens, that is your prerogative,\u201d he said \u201cWe would like to see it appropriated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demonstrators stand outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City on July 1, 2021 and hold signs urging Gov. Mike Parson to fund voter-approved Medicaid expansion (Tessa Weinberg\/Missouri Independent). A milestone moment for the Missouri state budget passed unmentioned Wednesday in a House committee \u2014 for the first time since Medicaid expansion was passed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nState general revenue needed for first time to fund Missouri Medicaid expansion - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/state-general-revenue-needed-for-first-time-to-fund-missouri-medicaid-expansion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State general revenue needed for first time to fund Missouri Medicaid expansion - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Demonstrators stand outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City on July 1, 2021 and hold signs urging Gov. 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