Missouri NAACP endorses Medicaid expansion ballot initiative

The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP on Feb. 18 announced its support of the statewide campaign to give voters the choice to approve Medicaid expansion.
The civil rights organization is among the 140 organizations to date to formally endorse the Healthcare for Missouri ballot initiative. The coalition includes businesses, Chambers of Commerce, hospitals, medical organizations, civic and charitable groups and everyday Missourians.
The expansion would help provide health coverage to more than 230,000 uninsured adults in the state, bring more than $1 billion of our tax dollars home from Washington each year, create thousands of jobs, boost the state’s economy and keep struggling rural hospitals open.
“Far too many Missourians are literally having to choose between paying for lifesaving care and putting food on their table,” said Nimrod Chapel Jr., Missouri NAACP president. “It’s past time for our state to join the three dozen others that have already expanded Medicaid with favorable outcomes.”
Those 36 states include neighboring Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and Nebraska. Expansion efforts are also underway in Kansas and Oklahoma.
An expansive body of research shows that Medicaid expansion will not just save lives but could also save taxpayers money.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that expansion could save our state more than $1 billion by 2026 by reducing many of the healthcare costs the state now pays.
A new analysis of Medicaid expansion in Arkansas, Indiana and Ohio shows how those states have used Medicaid-derived savings to cut income taxes, increase government efficiency and improve worker productivity. That report concluded that Medicaid expansion in Missouri ‘can be designed to budget for savings and revenue opportunities that significantly exceed the state’s cost of implementation.”