Legislation would increase access and decrease costs
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Ahead of the 2023 legislative session, state Rep. Patty Lewis, D-Kansas City, pre-filed several bills Dec. 1 designed to make health care more accessible to Missourians. She cited burdensome regulations to providers and high costs to consumers as her primary reasons for filing this legislation.
“The General Assembly does Missouri a disservice when we fail to modernize the laws governing our health care industry,” Lewis said. “My bills constitute a wide array of quick, easy and simple fixes to address serious problems in Missouri health care policy that will lead to better health outcomes for more people across the state while increasing access and decreasing costs.”
Most of Lewis’ bills are designed to address coverage gaps. For example, House Bill 286 would guarantee 12 months of postpartum care for Missourians receiving MO HealthNet benefits (far longer than the 60-day coverage period that currently exists), and HB 287 would ensure continuous coverage of prescription contraceptives for up to a year under health care plans that provides coverage for those contraceptives.
However, other bills would reconfigure Missouri health care laws to do away with unnecessary and burdensome regulations that inhibit medical professionals from practicing in the state. HB 285 establishes Missouri as a member of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact — an agreement already implemented in 33 other states — providing physicians licensed in other states or by the armed forces a fast track for licensure in Missouri. Currently, physicians can wait more than four months to receive a license, while the average wait time under the compact is shortened to just 19 days.
HB 284 also cuts regulations on advanced practice registered nurses by making permanent certain restrictions that were suspended during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
“When Missouri temporarily lifted these regulations on APRNs during the pandemic, we saw no drop in patient health outcomes, but when the state of emergency ended, negative patient outcomes increased,” Lewis said. “That unexpected and unintentional pilot program illustrated that these regulations only hurt our patients, so we should do away with them.”
Lewis’ other bills include HB 288 to require public middle and high schools and charter schools school districts to provide "period products" at no cost, HB 290 to exempt diapers from sales tax, HB 291 to expand expedited partner therapy to the treatment of trichomoniasis and HB 292 to require health plans to cover the treatment of obesity and the ailments it causes.
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