The Missouri Catholic Conference submitted comments this week asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to further revise the regulations governing their mandate that all health plans include coverage for sterilization, contraception, and abortion drugs. The latest proposed regulation, issued in February, still does not exempt all Catholic hospitals, schools, universities or charity [...]
HB 700 prohibits funding of abortions, except to save the life of the mother. The bill provides Medicaid health coverage for uninsured pregnant women and their unborn children. HB 700 also establishes a new program – the Show-Me Healthy Babies Program – that will offer health coverage when the traditional Medicaid program doesn’t. The [...]
The House Healthcare Policy Committee heard testimony this week on a bill that would prevent abortions being performed by telemedicine. HB 400, sponsored by Representative Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane), would prohibit any nurse or other healthcare provider besides a physician from providing a patient with medication to terminate a pregnancy. The bill was supported by testimony [...]
On Wednesday the House Health Care Policy Committee heard HB 386, sponsored by Representative John McCaherty (R-High Ridge). The bill would make it illegal for a physician to perform an abortion solely because of the unborn child’s gender, or a diagnosis of Down Syndrome or other genetic abnormality. “Human beings are human beings, and whether [...]
The House Health Care Policy Committee heard two abortion-related bills this week. HB 177, sponsored by Representative Andrew Koenig (R-Winchester), would require a physician (rather than a nurse, or other health care professional) to administer RU-486 to a patient in order to induce an abortion. In addition, prior to administering the drug, the physician must [...]
The Senate Judiciary Committee has heard several pro-life bills, including SB 84, sponsored by Senator Scott Rupp (R-Wentzville), and SB 175, sponsored by Senator Wayne Wallingford (R-Cape Girardeau). SB 84 would protect the conscience rights of health care workers, allowing them to opt out of participating in unethical medical practices, including abortion, sterilization, contraception, assisted [...]
As Congress begins to debate budgetary issues, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is calling upon Catholics to urge their representative in Washington to protect rights of conscience, life, and religious liberty as they work towards funding the government for the coming year. Particularly of concern is re-authorization of the Hyde Amendment, which [...]
A report by the University of Missouri School of Medicine and Dobson DaVanzo & Associates has been published that evaluates the economic impacts of expanding Medicaid in Missouri. The Missouri General Assembly will consider whether to expand Medicaid in the 2013 session. In this series the MCC examine various aspects of the report. Most of [...]
On election night voters across the country were not only anxiously awaiting election returns on races involving candidates, but also the outcome of various ballot measures. These measures reflected a wide spectrum of social policy issues and often resulted in close outcomes. In many of the states the Catholic conferences took a leading role in [...]
Aetna Health Insurance Company has been fined $1.5 million by the state of Missouri for selling policies that cover elective abortions without requiring customers to pay an additional premium for that coverage. A 1983 state law states that no health insurance policy “shall provide coverage for elective abortions except by an optional rider for which [...]