After legislature balks, Mo. governor breaks promise to back Medicaid expansion approved by 53% of voters last year

"The battle over Medicaid expansion in Missouri reached a new boiling point Thursday as Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, announced that the state will not implement expansion, in defiance of a ballot measure passed by voters last year," Becky Sullivan reports for NPR. "The decision stems from Republican state lawmakers' refusal to appropriate funds for the expansion to the state's Medicaid program, called MO HealthNet, in the state budget bill passed last week."

Parson had promised to support the Medicaid measure if it passed, though he never personally supported it. This week he said he couldn't approve expansion without a way to fund it. He acknowledged that his decision would likely face legal challenges.

Last August, 53% of voters "approved a ballot measure to raise the limit to 138% of the federal poverty level, roughly $17,774 for a single adult and $37,570 for a family of four," Sullivan reports. "It would have made Missouri the 38th state to expand Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act."