Mo. House budget plan skips Medicaid expansion

Thursday, February 14, 2013

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The top budget writer in the Missouri House has outlined a spending plan that omits Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposed Medicaid expansion.

The plan presented Thursday by Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream would also provide a smaller increase for public colleges and universities than Nixon had proposed for the 2014 fiscal year.

The Democratic governor wants to accept about $900 million from the federal government to expand Medicaid health care eligibility to nearly 260,000 lower-income adults. But Stream said he left that out of the budget because it runs contrary to Republican philosophy against bigger government.

Nixon had proposed a $34 million funding increase for colleges and universities. Stream’s proposed budget pares that back to $20 million. It also provides less money for early childhood programs than Nixon had sought.

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