Average cost of health insurance premiums doubled over last decade

COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Health care premiums are at a record high. A survey released Tuesday shows the average family is now paying over $15,000 a year on health care premiums.

The rising costs are affecting Missourians as well.

$15,000 per year is more than double what the average family was paying for health insurance a decade ago. This year’s increase in premiums was one of the largest since the Kaiser Family Foundation began the yearly survey in 1999, says the group’s president, Drew Altman.

"I think what’s especially notable this time, is that it comes when wages have been falling in real terms, when wages are not really keeping up with inflation," Altman said.

In Missouri, a relatively high percentage of employers provide health insurance. But Ryan Barker, with the Missouri Foundation for Health, says high costs are changing that.

"That percentage of Missourians with employer insurance has dropped year after year, and so there’s just been this slow decline. It’s been a little bit slower than other states, but I think we’ll continue to see that as health insurance premiums continue to go up."

Nationally, 60 percent of employers offer health insurance.

Jacob Fenston, KBIA

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American now know less about health care reform than they did last year

COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Americans now know less about the main provisions of Obama’s health care reform law than they did at the end of last year. That’s according to the latest monthly poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Here in Missouri, a majority continues to oppose the law. Only about 30 percent of Missourians support the Affordable Care Act.

Ryan Barker is Director of Health Policy at the Missouri Foundation for Health. A poll by that group found that despite broad opposition to health care reform, Missourians are supportive of individual components of the law.

"People don’t like the Affordable Care Act, but then when you dig a little deeper people don’t really know what’s in it and how it’s gonna impact them,” Barker says. “We asked questions specifically about, well, do you like tax credits for small businesses, do you like that insurance companies can’t deny care based on preexisting conditions, and those all poll favorable, in the high 70s or low 80s.”

Barker was in Columbia Monday to answer questions about the law’s impact. Eileen Todd was there, and says she doesn’t oppose or support health care reform.

"Right now I don’t have any opinion or knowledge of it. I guess my first concern is how it will affect me personally," Todd said.

Jim Kabler asked how the law would close the so-called “donut hole” – the gap in drug coverage under Medicare.

"I’m a small user of drugs, but I could have to increase it in the next year or two, and the donut hole might be more significant at that time," Kabler said.

Most of the major components of reform go into effect starting in January 2014. I’m Jacob Fenston in Columbia.

Jacob Fenston, KBIA

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Missouri Foundation for Health names new president and CEO

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - The Missouri Foundation for Health has named a new president and CEO.

Robert Hughes will assume his new post on November 1st, taking over from founding president James Kimmey who is retiring at the end of this year.

Hughes is an Illinois native but has spent the past 20 years in New Jersey. There, he worked for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest health philanthropy in the U.S.

He says his first priority will be getting to know Missouri.

"I really want to get out and understand what the health issues are across the region, and I think any subsequent decisions about where the Foundation goes will be influenced by what I learn, and the kind of feedback that I get from community leaders and health leaders across the area," Hughes says.

Hughes says under his leadership the Missouri Foundation for Health will continue to serve as a source of information on federal healthcare policy.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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Confusion persists over health care overhaul

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - More than a year after becoming law, Missourians still aren’t sure what to think about President Barack Obama’s Health Care Overall Law.

Members of the Missouri Foundation for Health met with about 15 Cape Girardeau residents Monday night to answer questions about the law and to dispel rumors.

The Foundation designed the question-and-answer session to provide information about the law, according to policy analyst Thomas McAuliffe.

“The common questions are: When is this going to kick in? Is this going to change the cost of care? Will I be healthier as a result of this law? Ultimately, people say, ‘Why was it passed the way it was passed?’ I think lot of people are upset not about the content as much as they are the ultimate way in which it was passed,” McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe says that many Medicare users express concern that their benefits will change. The individual mandate is also a common theme for discussion throughout the state.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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SEMO Red Cross and St. Francis Medical Center receive MFH grants

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - St. Francis Medical Center and the Southeast Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross received grants from the Missouri Foundation for Health on Wednesday.

A two-year, $100,000 grant was given to the Red Cross to provide basic support for services and assistance to victims of disasters based on their needs, educating the public on prevention and survival, and training volunteers, according to Cheryl Klueppel, the executive director for the American Red Cross - Southeast Missouri chapter.

"We are so pleased and grateful to the Missouri Foundation for Heath for recognizing the need and recognizing the support that the American Red Cross can provide in the Southeast Misssouri area to help address and support some of the health needs in the Bootheel area. So we are very grateful," Klueppel said.

This is the second time the Red Cross chapter received the grant. The Red Cross chapter serves 11 counties from Perry County to the Bootheel.

St. Francis Medical Center's grant totalled $149,959.

Part of the grant money will be used to continue their youth programming at local schools, where they train high school students to go to elementary, middle, and high schools and talk to students about tobacco use, according to Terry Baker, the Tobacco Prevention Manager at St. Francis Medical Center, said.

“Advocating for healthier communities and to really show the students and the community that tobacco use is not a norm in our communities. Most people don’t smoke. And kind of establish that and help reduce the initiation of tobacco use among our youth,” Baker said.

It will also be used to implement Project Smokebusters in several area schools.

The local grants are part of a $7 million round of funding approved by MFH’s board.

Rachel Weatherford, KRCU

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Cape Girardeau to alter bike route plan

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The City of Cape Girardeau announced that it will reduce the number of streets that will be used for bike routes.

The change in plans comes after a contentious public meeting last Thursday in which homeowners voiced their concerns about losing on-street parking options. The bike lanes would eliminate on-street parking on the streets where they would be designated.

Homeowners also argued that bike lanes would decrease property values.

Eleven bike routes were examined at last Thursday’s meeting. Four of the routes are no longer under consideration.

The City of Cape Girardeau was awarded a grant for over $250,000from the Missouri Foundation for Health to develop the bike lanes.

According to a press release from the City of Cape Girardeau, the following routes will no longer be considered:

• Lexington Avenue between Concord and Amblewood
• Perryville Road between city limits and Bertling
• Cape Rock Drive between Kingshighway and Lexington
• Hopper Road between Mount Auburn and Kingshighway

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Cape homeowners concerned about proposed bike lanes

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Citizens voiced their preferences and concerns about Cape Girardeau’s newly proposed bicycle lanes yesterday at a public forum in the Osage Center on Thursday. 

Funding for the bicycle lanes would come from a $253,000 grant received from the Missouri Foundation for Health. These lanes would be located along residential streets as well as in commercial areas.

Bicycle lanes would make travel safer for cyclists and motorists alike. To ensure safety of everyone on the roads, there would be no parking along streets where the proposed bicycle lanes would be located.

Avid cyclist and lifelong Cape Girardeau resident, Steve Girard, believes there is another benefit to these bicycle lanes.

“I think the premise of the bike lanes themselves would be to allow for people that wouldn’t otherwise get out on the roads on their bicycle, would give them a place to ride and feel more comfortable,” Girard says.

Many homeowners and real estate professionals spoke out against the lanes, saying they would decrease property value.

The bicycle lanes would occur along residential streets as well as in commercial areas. Along the streets where the bicycle lanes have been proposed, there would no longer be any parking on either side of the street.

Ralph Hendrickson with ERA Cape Realty feels that this lack of street parking is one of the main concerns with these proposed bike lanes.

“Those folks that live there who have lived there for decades or maybe just bought six months ago, didn’t know this was coming, potentially could be hurt and their property values could be hurt because potential buyers are going to buy somewhere else,” Hendrickson said.

The city staff will take all of the comments and questions they received at the forum and map them out to determine where the most positive feedback for the lanes is located and then make a final recommendation to the city council.

The city staff will take all of the comments and questions they received at the forum and map them out to determine where the most positive feedback for the lanes is located and then make a final recommendation to the city council.

Katie Long, KRCU

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Cape receives $250K for bike lanes

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The streets of Cape Girardeau will soon become safer for bicycle riders. 

Cape has received a $250,000 Ride the City grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health that will create 40 miles of bike lanes and install 156 bike racks.

Eric Redinger, member of the local Bicycle Advisory Council says this grant will connect schools, parks, and recreational facilities with bike lanes..

"I think it’s just great, I think it’s great for bicycle enthusiasts because you can travel through the city so much easier," Redinger says. "That is also a big benefit for people right now with unsteady gas prices."

Redinger feels this will also benefit children making it safer for them to ride their bikes to school.

The Bicycle Advisory Council will be working with the city to implement the grant over the next few months.

Redinger says the bike lanes should be completed by October of this year.

Matthew Caldwell, KRCU

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