During the next session of the legislature in January, Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, will likely introduce a bill to insure autistic children under 18. A similar bill was presented during the 2009 session, but was killed in the House.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-St. Louis County, who voted for the bill, said it was an important first step in reducing costs to the state that the uninsured population creates. "The fallacy of this argument is that these people aren't getting health care; they are. They're the 700-800,000 folks who don't have insurance," Schmitt said. He said these are the patients that go to an "emergency room where it's 10 times more expensive to treat that person than it would be at..
Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of St. Louis County said the bill would make some medical processes more efficient while getting the uninsured out of the ER.