Missouri GOP Seeks Statewide Vote On Opting Out Of New Federal Health Care Plan

Republicans in the Missouri state legislature are trying to opt the Show Me State out of any health care changes passed by the U.S. Congress.

The St. Louis Beacon reported about State Sen. Jane Cunningham's effort to secure enough votes to put an opt-out proposal on the 2010 ballot.

"We want to shield Missouri from unconstitutional mandates,'' Cunningham said.

From the Beacon story:

As it stands, Cunningham said she had 17 Senate sponsors and co-sponsors, including herself. That's half of the 34-member Senate. Several Republican members of the state House, including Brian Nieves of Washington and Tim Jones of Eureka, said their companion measure has strong support.

Also apparently on board: the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society and the state Medical Association, which voted this week against many of the health-care proposals under consideration by the U.S. Senate.

In a statement issued at the news conference, the St. Louis society asserted that the Senate measure was "fundamentally flawed'' because of high costs, improper "government intrusion'' and "insufficient deliberation."

The Beacon reported that Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters the effort was "pretty dumb."

We've written a lot about state responses to the health care negotiations in Washington, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) was one of just six Democratic governors who did not sign a bland letter calling for health care reform earlier this year.

When we asked Nixon's spokesman if the governor would opt Missouri out of the public option when that plan was on the table, he said the governor was worried about costs.

"The governor has been making his case that Congress must address this issue in a smart way that lowers premiums for families, provides greater access to care, and doesn't place unreasonable unfunded mandates on state governments during tough fiscal times," Jack Cardetti said.

Missouri was on the Obama campaign's target list last year, but he narrowly lost the state to Republican Sen. John McCain.