MOScout Daily Update: Parson Faces Lecture Fatigue - Bean on MedEx Reform - Wiemann to Handle COVID Bill - Pay Proposal and more...

Parson Battles Lecture Fatigue

Scott Charton on Twitter notes that Joplin’s death count from COVID is now about the same as it was from the Joplin tornado.  While I usually avoid the death comparison between dissimilar events (9-11 vs auto fatalities etc), I do think the invocation of Joplin is relevant because COVID will be the defining event of Parson’s administration.  History will judge his time as governor by his response to it.

Parson’s response was captured perfectly by Brian Hauswirth yesterday.  “While the governor reiterates that he's opposed to a statewide mask mandate, he’s urging rural and all Missourians to wear a mask.”

The problem with the continuation of this approach is that there’s no evidence it’s effective. It hurt that Donald Trump mocked his opponent’s use of a face mask.  But I worry that the “Parson lecture” is becoming even less effective as Missourians tune his rhetoric.  At some point actions are necessary to grab attention. The average Missouri may hear Parson’s soundbite on TV and think, “If it were really important that folks don’t crowd bars, wouldn’t he do something about it?”

You might need a jarring event to shake folks out of their COVID complacency.  And unlike the Joplin tornado, this outbreak happens every day, quietly, seen largely in charts and news cast and heard sporadically in updates from friends and families.

If a jarring event does come, I suppose it will be when the hospitals are overwhelmed…

And

One MOScouter says that Parson is loathe to change course once he’s decided something: You’re missing a point about Parson’s psyche, for him to take more extremes measures now, mask mandate etc. would be him admitting he was wrong earlier… Parson cannot admit he made a mistake…

Bean Eyes Medicaid Expansion and Reform

In an op/ed piece in the Daily American Republic, Sen-elect Jason Bean lays out the case for Medicaid reform.  See it here.

While I did not support the Medicaid expansion ballot initiative, I realize the actions we take this legislative session to implement it will impact the state budget, Missourians’ access to care, and our health care industry for decades to come… policymakers have three very distinct options…

Option one: simply expand Medicaid without reforms, and watch the program continue to eat up a larger share of the state’s budget every single year…

Secondly, we could simply refuse to expand Medicaid out of principle and concern for the state budget, only to watch as the courts would step in and mandate expansion…

That leaves the third and best option: expand Medicaid, but only while reforming the program to cost less and deliver better care, while helping rural hospitals like the ones in my district. That’s exactly what many conservative states have done. In fact, Indiana, with Vice President Pence as governor, as well as Ohio, Arkansas and many other states, coupled Medicaid expansion with a redesigned Medicaid program that cut costs, freed up general revenue, and delivered better health outcomes to the working poor.

These are states Medicaid expansion proponents pointed toward when making claims on the campaign trail that expansion didn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but could instead pay for itself. Those statements are only true if and when we reform our Medicaid program…

So now is the time to put all good health care reform ideas on the table. Are there areas of the Missouri Medicaid program that should move to managed care? Are there benefits that we currently give to out-of-state patients that need to be cut back? Can we more efficiently use our Federal Reimbursement Allowance to pay for some of the expansion? With hospitals and providers now getting the benefit of Medicaid expansion, do we need to review reimbursement rates?

As we sit here today, I don’t have all the answers, but every single one of these Medicaid reform ideas and more should be analyzed, debated and discussed during the 2021 legislative session….

COVID Liability Session

While the COVID special session remains on ice as we wait for the recent bout of coronavirus contagion to pass, there was some clarity about the path for the legislation.

SB1 was filed by Sen. Ed Emery.  See it here. The language looks exactly like the language that was circulated previously.

And Speaker Elijah Haahr announced that Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann will handle the legislation in the House.

“If you are a health care worker, a homeowner, a small business owner or the leader of a faith-based institution, you should not live in fear of frivolous litigation or face frivolous litigation during this pandemic, and it does not offer blanket protection for non-pandemic cases like slips and falls due to negligence,” said Speaker Pro Tem Wiemann, R-103.

Legislator Pay Proposal

Post-Dispatch reports that the “Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials approved a preliminary plan Tuesday calling for 5% raises spread over two years for the governor, other statewide elected officials and state lawmakers.  In Missouri, raises for elected officials are determined by the independent panel. But the Legislature has the power to block pay hikes.  If the Legislature doesn’t reject the recommendation by a Feb. 1 deadline, the pay hikes would be the first in 14 years.”

I’ve been covering state politics now for 13 years.  That means I’ve never seen a pay raise for legislators.  My experience is that every time this is brought up, a few legislators bemoan how terrible it would be to “give ourselves a raise.”  And then very few legislators have the courage to make the “bad vote” for a raise, and it gets blocked.  

Over the course of a decade, this increasingly makes public service a financial burden on the those who would serve.  It’s leading to a place where only the wealthy and financially independent will be able to run for office.  And that will make the legislative body very different from average Missourians.

MEC: Lawmaker’s Family LLC and PPE Grant Program

The Missouri Ethics Commission issued an opinion that “a legislator’s interest in a corporation, which is a coparticipant in a joint venture with an LLC, does not result in a conflict of interest pursuant to Section 105.456.2, RSMo, when the LLC participates in a state-administered grant program.”  See it here.

New Committees

MO Values PAC was formed.  Its treasurer is Margaret 'Chris' C Yaudas.

$5K+ Contributions

Missouri Senate Campaign Committee - $10,000 from MOSFA PAC.

HealthPAC - $100,000 from MHA Management Services Corporation.

Missouri Democratic State Committee - $10,000 from Shields for the City.

MO Republican Party - $8,871 from Timothy Drury.

Devine for Judge - $6,500 from Joshua Devine.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Randy Dunn, Brandon Ellington, Charlie Puyear, and Tim Person.