Dear Editor:
Sunday's NT stories on Medicaid were interesting. All three Democrats running for the 6th District Senate seat support expanding Medicaid, as long as someone else pays for it. Mr. Stuebig does seem to understand that there is no "free money" tree in DC. All federal Medicaid expansion money comes from more debt piled on our grandchildren. If politicians want to provide more free health care then why won't they support doing so at the local and/or state level? Is getting elected so important to them that they are willing to say anything, even do anything, if it increases their elections chances? Do they have no concern for future generations?
There are one million Medicaid recipients in Missouri, over 16 percent of our population. They currently cost taxpayers almost $10,000 per year per recipient. In 2009 Missouri's spending per healthcare enrollee was 23 percent higher than the national average, 22 percent higher than Iowa, 34 percent higher than Oklahoma and 43 percent higher than Arkansas.
Do you wonder how many people in Missouri collect some form of taxpayer funded assistance? 22,600 families receive child care subsidies, 416,000 children get food stamps (SNAP), 148,453 households receive low-income home energy assistance (LIHEAP), 127,551 women and children receive women, infants and children (WIC) supplemental nutrition assistance benefits, 78,214 households receive federal rental assistance, 38,473 adults and children receive temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), 624,308 children are enrolled in Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (almost half of the kids in Missouri), 519,000 people received an average federal earned income tax credit (EITC) of $2,300, 20,789 children participated in Head Start.
It is past time for government, and society, to quit punishing our young people (higher taxes and more federal debt) who make responsible decisions when it comes to reproduction, and stop handing out ever increasing rewards to those who provide proof that they are irresponsible. From 1965-2017 the federal government went from not paying for births to forcing taxpayers to pay for 50 percent of all births in our nation. Government's policies of punishing positive behavior and rewarding negative behavior is a no-win situation for everyone.