With FRA stalled in Senate, House should move its version

Minority Leader Crystal Quade sponsoring only renewal bill filed in House

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With legislation to renew a special tax that provides more than $4 billion in funding for Missouri’s Medicaid program stalled in the Senate, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade today said the House must advance a similar bill she has filed to ensure this critical funding source continues.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (MHDC)

“If the legislature fails to preserve this vital funding, the impact on Missouri’s health care system will be nothing short of catastrophic,” Quade said. “We cannot allow irresponsible politicians behaving like children to blow a massive hole in the state budget that would leave countless Missourians without health care. With the Republican supermajority unable to act on this critical issue, the House needs to move the Democratic bill without delay.”

At issue is the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, a voluntary tax paid by Missouri hospitals that enables the state to leverage additional federal Medicaid funds. The tax generates about $1.4 billion a year to bring in another $3 billion in federal money. It will expire Oct. 1 unless lawmakers renew it.

Senate Bill 748 to permanently renew the FRA has been awaiting debate for months but hasn’t come up for a vote due to infighting among Senate Republicans. House Bill 2834 sponsored by Quade, D-Springfield, is the only FRA renewal legislation filed in the House.

Quade is calling on House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, to immediately refer HB 2834 to committee so it can be heard and then advanced to the full House of Representatives for debate. The 2024 legislative session ends at 6 p.m. on May 17.