Supporters tout new Missouri law as healthcare relief for many farmers

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- One of Missouri's top farming groups will now be allowed to sell health plans that supporters hope will boost the number of farmers with affordable health coverage.

Signed into law by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe in July, Senate Bill 79 creates a framework for the Missouri Farm Bureau to offer health care plans to its 143,000 members.

The organization would be able to offer lower-price coverage options outside of the Affordable Care Act, which supporters say is needed to help farmers and their families who struggle to find options through the ACA marketplace or aren't eligible.

“Everybody knows that whenever someone doesn't have a health plan, that creates a lot of hardship," Buchanan County Farm Bureau President Tim Gach said. "The plan that the Farm Bureau is promoting its planned to be cheaper than an unsubsidized ACA plan."

Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kurtis Gregory of Marshal, the new law makes Missouri the 13th state to allow Farm Bureau health plans, a particularly beneficial development for younger farmers faced with higher startup costs and tighter budgets.

"This was a grassroots type of legislation that we needed something for our rural community members to be able to have a health plan that gave them coverage," Gach said.

Gach said many Missouri farmers find themselves either forced to pay for costly private health plans or be on a spouse's plan from their employer.

"They are hoping to roll this out in 2026," he said. "They are tailored plans. Not everybody gets accepted. But, if you are accepted, as long as you maintain your membership, you can't be denied."

Farmers are required to pay a 30$ fee to be a member of the Missouri Farm Bureau. He pointed to Tennessee, which has a 98% retention rate for its own Farm Bureau health plan, as an example of a state covering nearly everyone who sought coverage.

State officials estimate that roughly 15,000 Farm Bureau members alone currently have no health insurance at all.

"For years, our members have told us how desperately they needed another option to manage their health care expenses. The existing coverage options were simply out of reach or unavailable for too many hardworking families," Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins said in a press release.