By Jason Hancock | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning,
Missouri pays private insurers $9.3 billion a year to run most of its Medicaid program. On Thursday, a group of physicians argued the state should stop.
Their pitch: administer the program directly, skip the overhead and profit, and save up to $259 million in general revenue — enough, they say, to protect benefits federal law doesn't require the state to cover. The figure comes from a group that advocates for single-payer health care. The industry's lobbyist, a former MO HealthNet director, says the overhead is the point: it buys care coordination that keeps people out of emergency rooms.
The timing isn't incidental. The Department of Social Services is weighing bids that would extend the managed care contracts through fiscal 2028, right as the new federal law squeezes what Missouri can spend. No lawmaker has proposed reversing course. One Democratic senator wants the conversation started anyway.
Steph Quinn looks at the fight over $9.3 billion.
(krisanapong detraphiphat/Getty Images)
by Steph Quinn
Physicians pushing to end managed care say the state is paying private insurers for overhead it doesn’t need. Insurers say that overhead buys better care
(Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
by Peter Pynadath
Voters have the opportunity to put Missouri on track to be the 10th state without an individual income tax, which made up 63% of the state’s general revenue in FY2025.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
by Mamoun Benmamoun
While much of the national conversation about trade focuses on China, for Missouri, Canada may matter even more.
NATIONAL HEADLINES
Thanks for reading The Daily Independent. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.