Policy Issues

I believe the 21st District and the state as a whole need to address three priority issues to move Missouri forward.

1. Increase Access to Healthcare

  1. It goes without saying that I believe we have to restore the Medicaid cuts. 180,000 people lost their healthcare and another 300,000 had their benefits reduced. Missouri cannot have a healthy economy without healthy families.
  2. We need to support programs such as Prepare to Care that increase the number of health professionals graduating in Missouri.
  3. We must increase provider reimbursement rates. My father was a dentist with a small private practice that accepted state assistance. Each time he treated a patient with state assistance he was choosing to forego a higher paying patient. In small rural clinics, doctors will simply choose not to accept patients with reimbursements rates that are only 25-40% of federal rates. State assistance will not benefit individuals who have to drive for hours to find healthcare. We are already seeing that in many cases.
  4. Finally, one of the first bills I will file is the "Medical Red Tape Reduction Act." I want to bring doctors, office managers, hospitals, insurance companies, case managers, and fraud investigators to the table to stream line billing and reimbursement practices. This will encourage more clinics to accept state assistance and reduce billing errors, waste, and fraud.

2. Improve Education

My mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother are all teachers. I hear daily from the front-line how difficult their jobs have become and how policy proposals play out in the classroom.
  1. We must fully fund the foundation formula. Recent changes to the formula have shifted the burden to property taxes. In addition, by not increasing the percentage of transportation costs reimbursed by the state, school districts are making cuts in the classroom to keep up with the rising costs of fuel.
  2. To improve education the legislature needs to focus on policies that truly improve education such as putting qualified teachers in the classroom. I will work to repeal ABCTE and increase teacher salaries.
  3. Smaller classrooms ensure that students receive the differentiated education they require.

3. Create Jobs that will Support Missouri Families

  1. We must encourage jobs that have livable wages and benefits.
  2. We should end tax credits to large corporations that do not provide health insurance. The State of Missouri should not subsidize large corporations' profits and then pick up the tab on its employees' health insurance as well.
  3. The State needs to invest in the next generation of workforce and prepare them for the global economy by making higher education more affordable.
  4. I support programs such as METS that bring technology and science into the classroom.
Paid for by Friends for Kelly Schultz, Loren Schultz treasurer