Kinder Continues To Use Outdated, Inaccurate Data In Opposition To Health Care Reform

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder isn't giving up on his outdated, inaccurate projections about how the state budget would be impacted by new requirements in the different Congressional health care reform proposals.  In a recently-published Missouri GOP statement, he says:

Washington liberals want to shift the costs to states like Missouri—forcing us to pay an estimated $450 million more every year.

In the taxpayer-financed campaign video he published a few weeks ago to express his concerns about the Senate Finance Committee health care plan, Kinder made a similar claim. However, as Jason Rosenbaum outlined in The Beacon, this estimate is out of date and irrelevant to the current debate.

Scott Rowson, a spokesman for the Department of Social Services, said the more recently passed Senate Finance Committee version of the bill would cost the state around $91 million.

As Rowson and Rosenbaum both note, there will be changes in the legislation that could impact the projected cost for state taxpayers. But even if that does happen, it's not unreasonable to expect Kinder to use the best data available -- data which accurately reflects what's actually happening now.

** So far as we know, no taxpayer resources were used to create the aforementioned MO GOP campaign press release.