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Welcome to the Mental Health Association's On-line Advocacy Legislative News. 

These periodic alerts are designed to keep you up to date on important legislative issues and to suggest steps to action.  We welcome your input and responses to these alerts, which are compiled and written by Marge Parrish, Special Projects Coordinator.  Please call us with your feedback at 314-773-1399, or send e-mail to mparrish@mhagstl.org.

This is first Legislative Update of 2005 regarding public policy and legislative matters. We have been monitoring the Federal Government's proposal to block grant Medicaid to the states.  For Missouri, Medicaid is a 60 (feds) 40 (MO) share of funding at present.  This information below is from Citizens for Missouri's Children and MHA recommends that you take the action outlined.  Thank you.

It is likely that there will be proposals at the federal level to cut Medicaid by block granting it. Block granting means frozen and reduced funding for the Medicaid program, and will lead to fewer of Missouri's most vulnerable citizens having access to the health care services they need. This comes as Missouri again faces a budget deficit and will likely look at cutting Medicaid at the State level to balance the budget.
Citizens for Missouri's Children urges you to help deliver a strong message to our elected officials. Cuts to Medicaid and other services to vulnerable families are not inevitable. These cuts are choices that have a real, harmful impact on individuals, families and communities.

An Ad hoc group, the Missouri Working Group Opposed to Medicaid Block Grants, developed the attached 'Statement of Principles' on proposed Medicaid Block Grants. If your organization agrees with this statement, we invite you to add your organization to the list of endorsers.

We'll use this statement as the debate around federal block granting of Medicaid funding moves forward at both the state and federal levels. A copy with signatures to date will be delivered to Senator Bond's staff on the Hill in January. The statement and the list of endorsers will also be delivered to Governor Blunt, current state legislators, and to the media later this year.

To sign on as an endorser please contact either:
Kirsten Dunham, Senior Policy Analyst, Paraquad, 311 N. Lindbergh, St. Louis, MO 63141, (314)567-1558, ext. 251 voice, (314)567-5552 TTY, (314)567-1559 fax or

Sharon Feltman, Health Access Project Director, Missouri Association for Social Welfare, 606 East Capitol Avenue, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101  573-634-2901, 573-443-6937, fax 573-635-1648

The statement will also be available for signing at the Missouri Association for Social Welfare's February 16 conference, Issues in Health Care Delivery: Accessibility and Affordability. For more information and to register for that conference, visit www.masw.org.

Text of statement opposing Medicaid block grants:

We, the undersigned, agree that our citizens must be healthy, educated and secure. Government's role is to protect the welfare of all and support individuals' and families' efforts to work and be self-sustaining. One of the most successful public programs is Medicaid, which provides access to necessary health care for those eligible. We are all stronger when families and individuals are able to access the health care services they need to remain productive and secure.

We recognize the need to address the rising cost of health care. However, cutting Medicaid is not the way to solve the problems with our health care system. Medicaid's overall cost is lower than that of private health insurance. Cutting or capping the Medicaid program will have profound negative consequences for those who rely on Medicaid and compromise our health, productivity and security as a nation. We strongly oppose converting federal Medicaid funding into a block grant or imposing caps on federal Medicaid funding. Medicaid's current structure guarantees coverage to people who are eligible, and has proven highly successful and cost effective in difficult economic times. Instead of reducing access to health care further by capping Medicaid funding, we support efforts that will make health care more available.

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