Missouri Republicans Won't Expand Medicaid Despite Voter Referendum
The whole democracy thing seems lost on Republicans these days. Last week Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced that the state wouldn't expand the Medicaid health care program under Obamacare to provide thousands of low-income adults access to healthcare insurance. Missouri voters had approved Medicaid expansion 53-47% in a referendum which amended the state constitution last year.
Despite the wishes of voters, the state's Republican controlled legislature refused to fund the expansion, saying that they wanted to “protect Missouri taxpayers from unsustainable and reckless government spending.” However, most of the funding would be provided by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]. Moreover, Missouri's voters heard such arguments prior to approving the referendum and rejected them.
It's likely that the state's GOP legislators still believe that heath care is like other commodities in the marketplace and simply disagreed with the idea of providing low income citizens with access to affordable healthcare. They aren't alone; several other states, mostly in the South, still refuse to expand Medicaid to provide coverage to the working poor.
Vox: "So far, 38 states and Washington, DC, have expanded Medicaid, covering nearly 15 million people. In the dozen states that have not, 4 million people are uninsured who would receive Medicaid coverage if their state expanded eligibility under the ACA. More than 95 percent live in the South, they are disproportionately Black, and many are not eligible for subsidies to buy private coverage on the ACA markets."
So much for Republican claims that they want to represent the interests of working men and women. Slash corporate tax rates - sure; fund health care insurance for the working poor - hell no. It's really that simple and anyone who believes that the GOP is going to become the Party of hard working blue collar workers is sorely mistaken.
By: Don Lam & Curated Content
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