Missouri Medicaid “Show-Me Healthy Babies” Program

In 2014, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed legislation to enact the Show-Me Healthy Babies Program (SMHB) into law. The program is separate from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health care to children in families with incomes up to 305 percent of the poverty level. SMHB, instead, covers unborn children by expanding health coverage to mothers. This program relies on matching funds from the federal government and therefore had to first be approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) before it could be implemented. After more than a year, the agency recently approved the state’s implementation plan and the state began enrollment on January 1, 2016.