Kinder Comes Full Circle on Children's Health Care

It's hard to overstate the hypocrisy in Peter Kinder's new calls to expand children's health care with more state and federal spending.

As both lieutenant governor and state senator, Kinder has been either absent or an active opponent to helping middle- and low-income families obtain affordable health care.  In fact, Kinder voted against the legislation to  allow uninsured children in families up to 300% of the federal poverty level to participate in the state Children’s Health Insurance Program -- the program he now cynically champions.

In 1997, Sen. Kinder filibustered (to death) legislation to create a pooled health insurance program for children younger than 18 that would have made insurance available at reduced rates.

In 1998, Sen. Kinder tried (unsuccessfully) to block legislation to cover 90,000 uninsured Missouri children, and 80,000 adults moving from welfare to work. 

And last year, Kinder was nowhere to be found when Republicans refused to appropriate $7.7 million to eliminate or reduce the premiums paid by families in the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- changes were projected to attract an additional 16,000 children to the program.

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Peter Kinder's real record on children's health care, as recorded in The Post-Dispatch, 5/8/1998:

PUT KIDS BEFORE POLITICS

The health of 90,000 Missouri children depends in part upon of the willingness of Sen. Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, to bridge the partisan gap and sign on to a law expanding Medicaid coverage for low-income children.

On Thursday, Gov. Mel Carnahan agreed to make changes that Mr. Ehlmann wants in the law.

It would be a shame if the Missouri Legislature allowed partisan posturing to stand in the way of health care for poor children for the second year in a row. Last year, another health-care plan for children was killed at the last minute by the GOP.

Child advocates say this year's bill is the most important legislation for the state's children in 20 years. SB 632 would expand Medicaid coverage to children from families that earn up to 300 percent of the poverty level - $ 48,150 for a family of four. The change would provide health coverage for 90,000 of the 160,000 children who don't have it now. It would also cover 80,000 adults moving from welfare to work. Most of the cost would be covered by federal funds.

The bill has passed the House and Senate, but in different forms. On Wednesday, Mr. Elhmann and three other conservative Republicans seemed to be launching a filibuster. The others were Sens. Morris Westfall of Halfway, Larry Rohrbach of California and Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau.

Late in the evening Mr. Ehlmann proposed a compromise that, in his mind, transformed the bill from a welfare program to an insurance program. The bill already requires a co-pay from families with earnings two to three times the poverty level. Mr. Ehlmann wants these families to make their co-payments at least 30 days before getting medical care. He also would make a family that dropped out of the program wait six months to get back in. The idea is to make sure that people aren't allowed to wait until they get sick to make their modest payments.

Mr. Ehlmann's proposals are reasonable. But Mr. Carnahan and his Social Services director, Gary Stangler, realized that it would take too long to make the changes and get final passage in both the House and Senate before the end of the session, next week.

So, on Thursday afternoon, the Carnahan administration sent Mr. Ehlmann a letter promising to make the changes that Mr. Elhmann wants, but to write them into regulations rather than the bill.

The governor's pledge should satisfy Mr. Elhmann's concerns. Before now, some of the GOP attacks on the bill have been transparent appeals to race and class differences - with references to poor people buying big screen TVs instead of health insurance. It's time for Mr. Ehlmann and the others to turn their party away from that narrow-minded approach.

If the Republicans start a filibuster, the Democratic leadership should keep the Senate in session 24 hours a day to focus the people's attention on the importance of the bill to the welfare of Missouri children.

Seldom does a legislature have such an opportunity to do so much good for so many.

Image credit: KY3