Missouri Senate filibuster ends with vote on multibillion-dollar Medicaid program

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A dayslong filibuster in the Missouri Senate ended Thursday after a Republican faction allowed a vote on a more than $4 billion Medicaid program they had been holding hostage.

Senators gave initial approval in a voice vote to a bill that will renew a longstanding tax on hospitals and other medical providers. The measure needs a second vote of approval in the Senate.

Money from the tax is used to draw down $2.9 billion in federal funding, which is then given to providers to care for low-income residents on Medicaid health care.

The vote came after members of the Freedom Caucus, a GOP faction, on Tuesday began blocking any work from getting done on the Senate floor. They took shifts stalling two nights in a row by reading books about former President Ronald Reagan and going through the proposed state budget line by line.

The Freedom Caucus had been leveraging the tax to pressure Senate Republican leaders to pass a bill kicking Planned Parenthood off the state’s Medicaid program, which the chamber did last month.

The House last week sent the measure to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who is expected to sign it.

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