What should Missouri's health plan look like?

If you took your car to a garage to be fixed and the mechanic told you he was only able to fix 8 percent of the problem would you be satisfied? What if the mechanic told you because he only fixed 8 percent of the car's problem you saved a bunch of money. Would that make you feel better?

This is exactly what Governor Blunt and our lawmakers are doing with their, "Insure Missouri" and "Missouri Health Net" programs.

In 2005 Governor Blunt shocked many people by appearing on television and in newspapers beaming with pride as he announced he had saved the state a lot of money by kicking 100,000 poor folks off of Medicaid, and took away dental and vision coverage from another 300,000 elderly and disabled Missourians. Fiscally responsible folks quickly saw through the smoke and mirrors and realized they didn't save the people of the state 1 cent. All they managed to do was shift the costs from the Medicaid program to the already overburdened hospitals and emergency rooms throughout the state at a much higher cost to taxpayers than Medicaid.

Now our poor neighbors and their families will receive no preventive health care and will be jamming our emergency rooms for every sniffle, cough or illness simply because they have nowhere else to turn.

Under the governor's Missouri Health Net program the new name for the Medicaid program, a parent with two children earning $292 a month, just $3,504 a year, doesn't qualify for coverage. Since the 2005 cuts, Missouri has lost $1.1 billion in federal Medicaid funds and our money is now improving health care services for folks in other states. The void created by gutting Missouri's Medicaid insurance program has led to many of the state's hospitals realizing an increase of as much as 64 percent in costs for services rendered to the uninsured. In addition to more uninsured people flooding our emergency rooms, our hospitals have no hope of recouping those expenses normally paid for by Medicaid.

Missouri has approximately 772,000 uninsured residents and of that number it is estimated that 120,000 are children. The new Insure Missouri program promises affordable insurance to 54,500 Missourians during its first phase. Here's where the smoke and mirrors comes into play. While 160,000 fewer Missourians have Medicaid coverage today compared to before Blunt's cuts, Insure Missouri would only restore coverage for about a third of those people. In addition, the new coverage is less comprehensive, since it does not cover dental or vision care. The health care safety net is full of rips and poor folks needing help fall through its gaping holes.

Solving our health insurance crisis will require innovation, leadership and culpability on the part our state legislators. Proposing solutions which only address 8 percent of the state's insurance crisis is unacceptable.

It's time to mend our broken safety net by making meaningful progress in fulfilling our obligations to help Missouri's uninsured. To do so we must begin by reinstating Medicaid coverage back to 2005 levels.

Our next goal must be universal coverage. This new health care program should include; preventive care, screenings, prescription drugs, emergency services, physician services, all hospital services, diagnostic services, medical equipment, dental, home care, inoculations and obstetrics. It must include all of the state's 772,000 uninsured with special attention for the care and well being of the state's poor children.

These are lofty goals for the future of Missouri, but saving lives should trump saving money every time.