JEFFERSON CITY — Health care policy continues to be at the forefront of American politics and for all the wrong reasons. We all know the federal health care law passed Congress in 2010 and was a truly partisan bill with only the president’s party supporting it. We all know about the botched rollout of its website, repeated changes to the law without congressional approval, and the 2013 Lie of the Year, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" by the president. All of this adds up to a failure of leadership and a flawed approach to tackling an important problem of public policy.

This flawed approach is characterized by an overreaching federal government that thinks it can force people into one-size-fits-all health care plans and that government makes better health care decisions than the people actually paying for it. Most Americans are not interested in a government big enough or powerful enough to force you to buy health insurance or one that tramples all over our religious freedoms by forcing employers to pay for health care procedures or services that violate their religious beliefs. This approach to governing is utterly un-American and has resulted in more federal government control, less personal freedom and immoral, runaway deficit spending that our children and grandchildren will be stuck paying for.

Solving the problems of our health care system does not require a large government bureaucracy or talking heads in Washington, D.C., making decisions for Missouri. Most of the decisions of government should be made closest to those affected by them, where the voters can keep an eye on their government. We can make those decisions here, the Missouri way. In the recent legislative session, lawmakers came together to craft a health care bill that remains true to our principles of limited government and personal responsibility while offering solutions to some of the problems that exist in our health care system.

The Missouri way came by way of a bill I sponsored, Senate Bill 754. This bill started out as a very simple extension of Missouri Rx, a prescription assistance program for low-income seniors that was set to expire in August this year. Missouri Rx helps elderly Missourians that fall into the Medicare Part D donut hole with out-of-pocket prescription costs. This is a completely voluntary program with income limits and set at a reasonable cost to taxpayers. I included a sunset provision in the bill so the Legislature will have to reexamine the program in three years to ensure it is working as intended and not costing us more than it should. I wonder if ObamaCare would still be around if it had to be reauthorized by Congress every few years.

As SB 754 picked up steam, other legislators amended their health care bills to it. These included the “Show-Me Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes Program,” which is a partnership between the Department of Health & Senior Services and the University of Missouri to deliver health care to underserved areas around the state. Also added was the Show-Me Healthy Babies Program which allows Missouri to cover unborn children in the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This will help women in Missouri have safe pregnancies and healthy babies at very little cost to Missouri taxpayers. Another provision allows medical school graduates to obtain a temporary assistant physician license and practice in underserved areas while being supervised by a physician. By the last week of session, SB 754 was a priority bill and passed with strong bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House. The governor signed the bill a few weeks ago and it will go into effect at the end of this month.

The debate over health care centers on two very different approaches. There are those who believe we should give more power to the federal government to administer health care and force health care decisions on us. The other approach is to empower individuals and families in their health care decisions and provide incentives for innovation and experimentation to expand coverage and deliver quality care. This is the Missouri way, and is consistent with what we accomplished with SB 754.

As always, I welcome your ideas, questions and concerns about Missouri government. You may contact me at the State Capitol as follows: (573) 751-1480, david.sater@senate.mo.gov or by writing to Sen. David Sater, Missouri State Capitol, Room 433, Jefferson City, MO 65101.