Missouri health insurance

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status report:
Missouri state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Missouri state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Missouri officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (6)

• W. Akin
• Jo Ann Emerson
• Samuel Graves

• Vicky Hartzler
• Billy Long
• Blaine Luetkemeyer

Our
Pick

No (3)

• Russ Carnahan
• William Clay
• Emanuel Cleaver

how healthy is living in Missouri?

Missouri fell one spot from its 2009 ranking, and is now ranked as the 39th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• Missouri was praised in 2010 for its high school graduation rate; 81.9 percent of ninth graders graduated within their expected four years of high school. This rate is an increase from five years ago, when the rate was 76.8 percent.
• Missouri is also ranked among the top ten states with respect to early prenatal care and was cited for a relatively low rate of infectious disease, with only 10.4 reported cases per 100,000 members of the population.

The bad news:

• Challenges facing Missouri include its low public health funding and its high rate of preventable hospitalizations; as well as low rates of immunization coverage and a high rate of children in poverty.
• Missouri's already high rate of obesity – 29 percent in 2009 – rose even further in the past year to 30.5 percent, continuing a steady increase over the past five years from 24.9 percent in 2005.
• The state has one of the highest rates of smoking in the nation, with 23.1 percent of the overall population listed.

Missouri's best and worst category rankings:

• Early prenatal care (86.4 percent) – 8th
• High school graduation (81.9 percent) – 10th
• Poor mental health days – 44th
• Public health funding ($45 per person) – 45th
• Immunization coverage (86 percent) – 45th
• Prevalence of smoking – 45th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Missouri.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Missouri health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Missouri here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Missouri, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Missouri have a health insurance high risk pool?

Missouri Health Insurance Pool
Phone 1-800-843-6447 (All but NW Missouri)
Phone 1-800-645-8346 (NW Missouri)

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Missouri started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Missouri's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Missouri

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Missouri and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Missouri.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Missouri health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Missouri.

Health insurance plan report cards for Missouri

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Missouri health insurance plan report cards.

Missouri government health insurance resources

Missouri Department of Insurance – Health Insurance page – links to publications provided by the State of Missouri.

MO HealthNet Division (Medicaid) – the purpose of the MO HealthNet Division is to purchase and monitor health care services for low income and vulnerable citizens of the State of Missouri.

MO HealthNet for Kids – part of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), it is a health insurance program for children of low-income families.

health care advocacy groups in Missouri

Cover Missouri – Cover Missouri is a project of the Missouri Foundation for Health to develop, publish, and promote specific policy recommendations to increase the number of Missourians with health coverage.