Missouri lawmakers renew crucial $4B Medicaid tax program

By SUMMER BALLENTINE
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers have approved a more than $4 billion hospital tax program essential to the state’s Medicaid budget. The GOP-led House on Wednesday renewed the program, which for months has been used by a Republican faction as a bargaining tool. The heart of the program is a longstanding tax on hospitals and other medical providers. Money from the tax is used to draw down $2.9 billion in federal funding, which is then given back to providers to care for low-income residents on Medicaid health care. Members of a Republican faction called the Freedom Caucus threatened to block the tax’s renewal unless GOP leadership passed their priorities.