Northwest Silver Haired Legislative Delegates Prepare

John Murphy, President of the Northwest Missouri Silver Haired Delegation, attended the Annual Bills Committee meeting in Jefferson City on July 16. Along with other delegates from across the state, John helped select 24 proposals to be presented to the statewide delegation at the October session.

All delegates from Missouri will attend the annual session in Jefferson City Oct. 21-23, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, and the House and Senate Chambers of the Capitol. Delegates will select five bills that will be the priorities for which they will advocate during this year’s legislative session. The bills they will consider cover many areas including:

Health: Increase Medicaid home delivered meal rates by 10%; increase MO HealthNet allowable asset amount; provide financial assistance to seniors for medically-necessary hearing devices, vision and dental services; enable pharmacies to have access to all prescriptions through a shared database (prescription monitoring program); increase criteria for Alzheimer’s unit designations; restore MO HealthNet dental coverage for seniors.

Social Service: Restore funding for Area Agency on Aging home delivered and congregate meals; increase funding for Area Agency on Aging programs and services; expand MO Health programs; support passage of the Money Follows the Person Program; increase funding for transportation services; require money recovered from MO HealthNet or overcharges to be returned to the MO HealthNet program.

Consumer Affairs: Ban talking or texting on any handheld cell device for drivers of all ages when operating a vehicle; create a clearinghouse of information of state services and a single entry point for enrollment; combine Silver Alert with Amber Alert; require mandatory insurance discounts for seniors (55 and over) who have completed driver safety class; support passage of MO House Bill 843 to install audio/video cameras in resident rooms in nursing homes; establish Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition program.

Taxation/Judiciary: Establish the senior services enhanced funding program (propose collecting 1% fee from health insurance); reasonable restrictions on payday loans, real estate and personal property modification; World War II adjusted compensation for MO Veterans; retain property tax credit known as the circuit breaker; allow waiver of penalty on property tax bills by county collector.