Gov. Blunt in his State of the State speech said that his replacement for Medicaid will “dramatically improve care for the sick and the poor.” Blunt’s new health care plan for Missouri’s low-income people puts the emphasis on prevention of illnesses. However, we will always have people who have chronic illnesses, i.e., diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, strokes, lung disease, etc. Those people need treatment and they need it now.
The Missouri Medicaid program now spends $6 billion a year in state and federal funds to provide treatment for more than 800,000 low-income people. Blunt’s new health care plan reduces that $6 billion to less than $100 million. A true measure of the worth of a society is how it treats its less fortunate. Missouri will be flunking!
Dick Reeves
Kirkwood