LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Feb. 9, 2005
========================Bearing the load
I think the good people of Missouri can create better solutions to our budget challenges than balancing the books on the backs or our most needy: the poor, the sick, the handicapped and the mentally ill. Who said, "What you do unto the least of my brethren, you do unto me"?
Personally, I am willing to raise taxes to make Missouri a state I can be proud of again. Gov. Matt Blunt's proposals to reduce services to the neediest among us is an embarrassment.
Beverly Blase
St. Louis
---------------------------Business first
I am happy to see that someone finally is standing up for careless nursing homes and the makers of dangerous drugs. Apparently, they, too, are the victims of frivolous lawsuits.
Thankfully, the Republicans in Jefferson City have indented this corporate injustice. For far too long, Missouri juries have been holding big corporations accountable for killing and injuring our families due to careless errors and outright deceit.
Why should a Missouri citizen who suffered a stroke or serious heart attack due to Vioxx deprive the CEO of Merck his inalienable right to a $20 million bonus and corporate jet?
We do not need to hear actual details of all these frivolous lawsuits that started this problem. Details and facts are not important when it comes to protecting and encouraging corporate irresponsibility.
The Republican majority should be commended for teaching our children an excellent lesson about avoiding responsibility and legislating away accountability.
Bill Holland
Webster Groves----------------------------------------------------------------
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 26, 2005
==========================Medicaid cuts cause severe harm to the neediest
An analysis of the 2006 budget by the National Governors Association found that Medicaid has grown greatly because health care inflation is running 2 to 3 times the inflation rate. Because more people are uninsured and there are more elderly and disabled adults, the Medicaid case load has increased by 33 percent over the past four years.
Gov. Matt Blunt has called for a $231 million cut in Medicaid. He also proposed cuts in the Children's Health Insurance Program and the First Steps program. The Bellefontaine Habilitation Center, which takes care of many people with severe difficulties, is to be closed.
There will be many severe consequences if these cuts occur. A recent St. Louis Business Journal article stated that Missouri would see economic activity drop by $150 million a year. There will be a net job loss of 2,000.
Because health care for 120,000 Missourians will be affected, there will likely be an increase in deaths and disabilities.
Medicaid has been hugely successful and costs less than private insurance. The Missouri League of Women Voters doesn't believe that the best way to balance the Missouri budget is to cut Medicaid and the other programs that help our most vulnerable citizens. Missouri is one of the lowest taxed states in our country.
Surely, we Missourians want to be proud of our state and how we take care of each other. It's part of our moral values.
Rea Beck, M.D.
Health Director, Missouri League of Women Voters
St. Louis---------------------------
We're losing federal dollars
Gov. Matt Blunt proposes a co-pay for some Medicaid services. He says a co-pay would average about $250 per participant. Last week the Division of Mental Retardation issued an impact statement showing that for an adult with mental retardation receiving day habilitation, the co-pay would be $480 a month. In a typical case, this person would have no income other than the federal Supplementary Security Income that goes to pay room, board and care at a group home.
Most likely this person is enrolled in a Medicaid waiver program designed for persons with mental retardation as an alternative to costly institutionalization. This program was implemented under then-Gov. John Ashcroft (hardly a bleeding-heart liberal) and has proved to be the most cost-effective way to provide these essential services. The program provides for long-term care for severely disabled persons with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. The state gets about $1.50 in federal funds for each dollar the state spends.
Blunt has said Missouri can't afford to "chase every federal dollar." I agree, but this federal dollar has long since been captured, and a review of the Division of Mental Retardation's budget will show that there has been a corresponding decrease in general revenue spending over the past decade.
So let's do the math. First the co-pay dollar cannot receive the federal match (only tax-based revenues can be matched). That means that for every co-pay dollar received, the state loses $1.50. Or, in other terms, the $30 million cut to the division will potentially lose an additional $45 million in federal funds.
This should be a "no-brainer" for the newly created Commission on Efficiency in Government if it is truly bipartisan.
John Solomon
Gravois MillsSolomon is a former director of the Missouri Division of Mental Retardation.
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Caring for one another
I am under no illusions about whether there will be cuts in Medicaid. But I do believe that we as citizens can affect how deep those cuts go by raising our voices on behalf of the voiceless.
As people of faith, we have a responsibility to ensure that members of our extended family - other Missourians - have access to care when they need it. At its core, Medicaid is a justice issue. This is not about Gov. Blunt, who I believe wants to do the right thing and will ultimately do the right thing.
Medicaid provides medical assistance to lower income and limited-asset individuals. It provides a vital safety net to ensure that the needy receive the health care they deserve. Without our health, nothing else really matters. Not a job, not education, not housing-nothing.
Our religious leaders are very concerned, and so am I. We call upon Gov. Blunt to lead Missouri on a new path of justice and compassion, of healing and hope.
I urge people of faith and goodwill to let their voices be heard on this issue.
Orvin T. Kimbrough
Executive Director, Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis
St. Louis---------------------------
A Voice on the Other Side
The state as bagman
The recent rallies of local religious leaders against the governor's proposed cuts in Medicaid demonstrate that our clergy have risen to the level of political sophistication of most Americans---none at all.
It hardly can be said that governments are instituted among men to serve as bagman on behalf of a small but highly vocal and organized minority who desire to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else. Nor can it be described as "moral" for those whose income falls a dollar under the qualifying limit to put their hands into the pockets of their neighbors.
And even should men of God agree that the end justifies the means, what is the "end"? The benefits of the program are widely touted and extolled; the harm done to those upon whose shoulders it falls is never seen or mentioned.
Clergymen should decide: Is it to be God or Mammon?
Paul A. Hein Jr., M.D.
Ballwin
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