Medicaid Expansion needed for families

To the Editor, Missouri Citizens, Governor Mike Parson, and our legislators,

Missourians are under attack by their own state government.

More than 100,000 Missouri children have been dropped from their Medicaid coverage despite the fact that they are eligible for that coverage.

Picture this: that is a Missouri town the size of Columbia that has been dumped by the people entrusted to take care of them. And all children.

In some Missouri towns it is illegal to dump animals. Yet in Missouri, our governor has decided that Missouri children simply do not matter.

This is gubernatorial and legislative malpractice. It is a violation of your oath of office to protect Missourians, yet time and time again, this is what we find because Missouri’s GOP has become far more concerned with donations of lobbyists than it is about protecting its own people.

Missouri’s drop in Medicaid enrollees is 2.5 times the national average. We are now ranked the fifth worst state in the nation for child enrollment in Medicaid.

This is the opposite of the direction we should be headed.

Because Missouri has failed to pass Medicaid Expansion, rural hospitals all over the state are closing. This leaves rural citizens without the crucial medical services they need to save their lives. It also is undermining our state’s rural economies, which depend on the medical field as one of the primary sources of good-paying jobs.

But the assault to our Missouri rural economies doesn’t end there. Families have to leave their hometowns to find jobs and medical care in other communities. This causes a continued degradation of our small businesses and tax base.

We need Medicaid Expansion. It actually costs Missouri more to not expand Medicaid rather than to do so. Each year, Medicaid Expansion would bring $3 billion badly needed funds to our state. The expansion would create 24,000 new jobs for Missourians.

As elected officials, or even as an unelected official, in our governor’s case, you must uphold your oath to the people of Missouri. If you have become so ensnarled in lobbyist money that you can no longer do so, you need to step down. We need a state government that understands its only reason for existence is to serve the people of Missouri.

Do your job, or get out.

Sincerely,

Tammy Harty

Democratic Candidate for Missouri’s

33rd Senatorial District