Post-Dispatch: "Don't play politics with the uninsured"

From this morning's paper:

About 344,000 people in Missouri were uninsured in 1999. About 815,000 have no coverage now — an increase of roughly 137 percent.

You might expect that staggering growth to inspire a sense of urgency in Jefferson City. Instead, state legislators spent the past weeks spewing hopelessly out-of-touch political rhetoric...

House Republicans refused to expand Medicaid eligibility even with voluntary tax increases from Missouri hospitals. Hospitals wanted to provide $52.5 million a year. That would have generated $93 million in federal matching funds and permitted 35,000 poor working parents to get care.

Instead, we'll pick up 100 percent of the cost. That back-door tax increase — from a Republican Legislature, no less — is shifted onto those of us with private health insurance. That drives up premiums, which increases the cost of doing business in Missouri — exactly what we don't want during a recession.

Read the whole thing here.