[Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits

Thu Apr 12 02:36:50 UTC 2012

Gene, what about taking the medicare payment which some of us pay and use 
that for the health benefit payment because it looks like if I get hit with 
the reduction I'll be paying for both?

Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene Coulter" <escoulter at centurytel.net>
To: "NFB of Missouri Mailing List" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits

>
> Start with him but Sen. Mayer and Dempsey also hold power here and if you
> have every single Senator.
> Subtract $111 from the current $707.00 and you left with $596.00 and then
> you have to make co-pays and go through a deductible.
>
> From: Gary Wunder
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:56 PM
> To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits
>
> Our own senator--Kurt Shafer.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Gail Bryant
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:34 PM
> To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Senate panel backs changes to blind benefits
>
> Who is the most appropriate person to contact?
>
> Gail Bryant
> Columbia Braille Teaching Services L.L.C.
> 1212 London Drive
> Columbia, MO 65203-2012
> Phone: (573)817-5993
> Cell: (573)268-4962
> gbryant at socket.net
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Gary Wunder
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:14 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.
>
> C 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
> published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
>
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