Jonathan Shorman

News-Leader

A Nixa Republican lawmaker said Tuesday that he will craft a plan to expand Medicaid.

Rep. Lynn Morris, a pharmacist, plans to introduce an expansion plan that will be developed this summer.

“I really believe there’s more people today on the Republican side that would like to look at Medicaid expansion than there was a year ago,” Morris told the News-Leader.

Morris said his plan will focus on re-examining how Missouri’s current state and federal Medicaid funds are spent.

If reforms can free up money, more people can be added to the program, he said.

Yet, the representative stressed the need for any expansion to be fiscally sustainable because of uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act at the federal level.

“I think the most important thing is doing something that we can feel we can afford each year,” Morris said.

If Missouri expands Medicaid up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, it becomes eligible for new federal funds to ultimately cover up to 90 percent of the cost of expansion.

Missouri’s Medicaid eligibility currently sits at 19 percent of poverty for adults with children.

On Tuesday, Morris could not say whether his plan would raise eligibility up to 138 percent. Raising eligibility to 100 percent of the poverty level would still be better than nothing, he said. Other specifics were not available.

“There’s things we can reform and redo that will help us expand Medicaid,” Morris said.

Some Republican lawmakers have become more open to expansion, though Medicaid proposals offered by Republicans failed to advance in the legislative process this year.

A last-minute push at an expansion-reform proposal by Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, went nowhere in the Senate, and several conservative senators promised to torpedo any expansion effort.

Underlining the still strong Senate opposition to expansion, in a letter to a constituent, dated May 13, posted on Twitter, Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, lays out his philosophical opposition to expansion.

“Medicaid expansion represents contraction of choice. The state, not the individual, decides what treatments can be provided and by whom.

“Individual liberty is important to me, and I understand my oath of office as a commitment to defend it,” the letter reads.

Morris will work with Rep. Jeff Messenger, R-Republic, in developing a plan. Messenger owns a prosthetics and orthotics company.

Morris said he hopes to introduce at least part of the plan during a Republican caucus meeting at the end of the summer.

His job going forward, he said, will be to educate lawmakers on the issue and seek support for whatever plan he ultimately develops.

“If the leadership doesn’t like our plan, we probably won’t have a plan. That’s the way it seems like politics is,” Morris said.