Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon chose the Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Center at 1717 Biddle Street for his first rollout today of the details of his key pledge if elected Missouri’s next governor — restoring Missouri’s 2005 Medicaid cuts.

“Our health care system is broken and, quite frankly, everyone knows it,” said Nixon, a Democrat, at his news conference.

And to fix it, he said, won’t require a tax increase.

For one thing, the state can tap into the federal money that it has rejected — roughly $2 for every $1 the state spends — since the cuts. Nixon says the lost federal money amounts to close to $2 billion, since 2005.

Nixon contended that the $800 million budget surplus that the Blunt administration now brags about was created by denying coverage to the elderly, the poor and the disabled, like Brenda Benedict of Maplewood.

Benedict, 59, is a disabled social worker who lost her coverage when the state eliminated its Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities program. She was among those on hand when Nixon laid out his plan.

Nixon’s plan centers on five points:

1) Restore the cuts, which he says reduced or eliminated health coverage for 400,000 Missourians.

2) Expand access for low-income children. About 64,000 Missouri children who are eligible for the state/Medicaid Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) aren’t enrolled in the program.

He also would allow families making more than 300 percent of the poverty level to “buy in” to the SCHIP program, which is allowed in many other states.

3) “Use technology and market forces” to reduce the costs of health insurance coverage for all Missouri families, which he says has skyrocketed.

Among other things, Nixon is promising to set up a “Show-Me Health Consumer” web page, where people can compare plans.

4) ”Strict performance reviews” of the current health system, and ending some of the duplication caused by some of the 60 state agencies, boards and commissions who deal with health care.

5) Focusing more on preventative care and personal responsibility.

Nixon said today’s timing of his rollout was dictated more by the fact that “it was ready,” and not by the fact that it’s two weeks before the Aug. 5 primary.

He has no serious Democratic opposition, but the Republicans are watching a battle between two high-profile candidates — U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof and state Treasurer Sarah Steelman– who are debating this afternoon on KMOX.

(Yours truly is one of the panelists.).

Both Republicans have defended Gov. Matt Blunt’s Medicaid cuts, which were enacted by the state Legislature.

Said Nixon spokesman Oren Shur:

“Today Jay Nixon outlined his plan to restore the health care cuts, expand coverage to more children and drive down costs for Missouri families. We hope our opponents will take this opportunity to tell the people of Missouri why they continue to embrace Gov. Blunt’s health care cuts.

“Our health care system is broken, families can’t afford coverage, and our opponents don’t even seem to notice. They say they support Blunt’s health care cuts and then they want to just sweep our state’s health care crisis under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist.”

UPDATE — Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Robinson just sent over the following reply, in reference to the post’s statement that “Nixon contended that the $800 million budget surplus that the Blunt administration now brags about was created by denying coverage to the elderly, the poor and the disabled…”:

Said Robinson: ”I just wanted to remind you that the changes the governor enacted to fix a failing health care system made up less than half of the total budget reductions enacted in 2005. I think this fact clearly sheds light on the inaccuracy of Nixon’s comment. “