Health-care bills taking a swipe and President Obama's health-care program passed the Missouri legislature this week. One allows employers to refuse health insurance for birth control; the other would let voters decide whether to allow the creation of a health-insurance exchange.
By David A. Lieb,Associated Press / May 19, 2012
Missouri'sRepublican-led Legislature registered its discontent with President Barack Obama'shealthcarepolicies Friday during an otherwise uneventful final day of a legislative session in which lawmakers settled for the doable instead of the ideal on their education and business priorities.
Legislators sent the governor a bill stating that employers can refuse to providehealthinsurance for birth control a measure meant as a slap against an Obama administration policy requiring insurers to cover contraception at no additional cost to women working at certain religious-affiliated institutions.
A separate measure also passed Friday will askMissourivoters later this year whether to restrict the creation of ahealthinsurance exchange, another Obama initiative.
The session ended at 6 p.m. Friday without passage of several education and pro-business proposals touted by Republican leaders when they began work in January. But legislative leaders, as is typical, still declared the session a success, noting that, in an election year, they were able to reach compromises that led to the passage of a $24 billion budget, an expansion of authority for charter schools and a tweak of the state's workers' compensation system, among other things.
"For theMissouriHouse, it was promises made and promises kept. We're very happy with our success," said House Majority Leader Tim Jones, R-Eureka.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon noted many of his budget priorities prevailed but expressed disappointment that lawmakers failed to expand incentives for businesses that supply parts to automobile manufacturers.
When the session began, some Republican legislative leaders outlined an aggressive education agenda to overhaul the state's school funding formula, expand charter schools, pare back teacher tenure protections, authorize tax breaks so children in failing schools could attend private schools, and eliminate a two-year waiting period before the state could intervene in unaccredited schools such as the Kansas City School District. The charter school bill was the only item to pass.
The Legislature's pro-business agenda also was left partly unfulfilled. Lawmakers sent the governor a bill prohibiting employees from suing co-workers for injuries covered by the workers' compensation cases. But Nixon vetoed other workers' compensation changes, as well as a Republican-backed bill that would have made it harder for employees to win workplace discrimination cases. Divisions between the House and Senate again scuttled bills to create new incentives for businesses or scale back the state's existing tax credits.
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