[Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits

Wed Apr 11 19:18:36 UTC 2012

The $600.00 deductible for 2858 plind persons saves the state $1,714,800.00
The monthly premium of $111.00 works out to a cost of 1,332.00 per person 
or for all 2858  recipients $3,806,856.00
Two points on this  first these two items alone would cost the average blind 
person $1,932.00 a year.
Secondly this only totals a savings of $5,521,656.00
The committee says the changes would save $10,000,000.00 so where is the 
other $4,478,344.00 coming from?
It appears from co-pays.
If my dear Senator is accurate and it is based on state health insurance 
there would be a $25.00 copay for primary care visits and a $35.00 for 
specialists and drug copays of $25.00 per prescription and up.
In some ways the drug coverage under Medicare would be better and some ways 
Blind medical Services would be better.
anyway if you take the $10,000,000.00 and just divide it by the 2,858 people 
on Blind Pension they are figuring we will be responsible for $3,498.95 out 
of limited incomes. or for a blind couple nearly $7,000.00.
By the way  FSD already does annual reviews and if a person is eligible for 
a better level of medical coverage the wonderful computer system 
automatically puts them there.
Last point, There is no way that FSD will have time to properly implement 
the program in less then 60 days by the time it goes through the mandatory 
rule making and if they do get it done there will surely be initial 
problems; it frightens me what could happen.
Gene

From: Gary Wunder
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:13 AM
To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
Subject: [Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits

Folks, we still have our work cut out for us. Please write. Today is the
best day to get it done. Write or call.

Gary

Mo. Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits

By DAVID A. LIEB

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Blind Missouri residents could have to start
paying premiums

of more than $100 monthly to remain eligible for state health care coverage,
under

a budget-cutting plan put forth Tuesday night by a Senate committee.

The plan embraced by the Senate Appropriations Committee could represent a
middle

ground with the House, which had sought to eliminate the blind health care
benefits

and replace them with a new, substantially slimmed down program. But the new
plan

does not appear to be backed by the administration of Gov. Jay Nixon, who
has been

outspoken against any cuts to blind benefits.

For more than 50 years, Missouri has paid for the health care of blind
residents

who earn too much to qualify for the Medicaid health care program for
low-income

residents - a cutoff of about $755 a month, according to the Department of
Social

Services. The state also provides a separate, roughly $700 payment to the
blind.

More than 2,800 blind residents currently are covered by the special health
care

program.

The Republican-led House voted last month to eliminate the roughly $30
million blind

health care program, arguing that the money was needed to help balance the
budget

and noting that no comparable benefit was available to people with other
types of

disabilities. The House instead voted to fund a new $6 million blind health
care

plan, funded largely by a tax increase on newspaper publishers.

Nixon, a Democrat, called the House budget cut "dead wrong."

The Senate Appropriations Committee scrapped the House plan, deciding that
it seemed

unlikely that the newspaper tax increase could pass. Instead, the Senate
version

would provide about $18 million for the blind health care benefits while
assuming

that nearly $10 million of additional funding could be generated by charging
deductibles,

premiums and insurance co-payments.

Senate appropriations staff said the estimate was based on a $600 deductible
and

a monthly premium of $111 - the same amounts currently paid by many state
employees

for health, vision and dental coverage.

The plan was put forth by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt
Schaefer,

R-Columbia, who said it was his understanding that some blind people
currently receiving

the state-funded health care plan could be eligible for Medicaid, which
receives

more than 60 percent of its funding from the federal government. Part of
Schaefer's

plan would require eligibility reviews for the state-funded program so that
more

participants could potentially be shifted to the regular Medicaid program.

Brian Kinkade, the interim director of the Department of Social Services,
said the

agency already conducts annual eligibility reviews for people on the
Medicaid and

state-funded blind benefits programs.

The department would prefer to continue the blind benefits program as it is,
Kinkade

said.

"Today they have health care provided, and it sounds like tomorrow they
would have

to pay under the Senate position," Kinkade said.

The Senate committee's plan still must go before the full Senate, and
differences

with the House then would have to be reconciled through a conference
committee consisting

of members from both chambers. Missouri's proposed $24 billion operating
budget would

take effect July 1.

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