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PrintJEFFERSON CITY — In 1997, doctors diagnosed Richard Green with multiple sclerosis, a disease where the body’s immune cells attack the nervous system, leading to a slow, progressive degeneration.
Green’s condition deteriorated, and about five years later, he was using a wheelchair.
Then Green’s employer of 20 years fired the Ozark resident. Green said he thinks he was fired because he became too expensive for the company to employ. He has been struggling with finances ever since.
This week, the 40-year-old single father of three lost his Medicaid coverage. His monthly $1,350 disability payment began this week and exceeded Medicaid’s minimum earnings limit.
Green said $710 of his monthly check pays for medications. The remaining $640 pays for his family’s needs.
“How could you live on that?” Green said.
On Thursday, Green joined the advocacy group First Things First at its rally and protest in the Capitol.
First Things First protested the legislature’s 2005 Medicaid cuts and were rallying in support of the bills sponsored by Sen. Wes Shoemyer, D-Clarence, and Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia. The bills, introduced simultaneously in the Senate and the House, would restore Medicaid eligibility to those cut from the Medicaid system two years ago.
The state’s 2005 Medicaid cuts eliminated benefits for about 100,000 Missouri residents.
Other residents had their Medicaid benefits reduced.
The bills would also repeal the sunset provisions that would end Medicaid in June 2008 and the state’s proposed health care for the uninsured program.
Baker said because the state now has a budget surplus, she is calling for legislators to reverse the cuts.
“We’re asking for something very, very simple,” Baker said. “We’re asking the governor: Put first things first. Before we give tax cuts to the wealthy, let’s give health care to those who have no other options.”
Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, said the Medicaid cuts were necessary. Without them, he said, “you had the potential that you couldn’t sustain the system.”
Shields said the Medicaid cuts eliminated Medicaid benefits for some 80,000 people who were collecting payments even though they didn’t qualify.
Shields is sponsoring a bill that seeks to restructure Medicaid coverage in an effort to reduce rising costs. The bill includes incentives for residents who make health-minded choices, which might include quitting smoking and losing weight. But the plan, called HealthNet, would not restore the coverage lost in 2005.
That’s little solace to Green, who, because of the cuts, cannot afford a patient lift, a mechanical harness that would help him get from his wheelchair and into bed, the shower and onto the toilet.
The lift costs $5,000, Green said.
His children are currently helping him with the day’s routine activities.
Sen. Mike Gibbons, R-St. Louis County, said the 2005 cuts replaced the 40-year-old former Medicaid system, and the cuts saved Missouri’s health care system.
Shields said he was optimistic that health care could be made available to everyone, but added the state shouldn’t begin a “gigantic, government-run health care system.”
“We would like to see available, affordable health care for all Missourians,” Shields said. “That means Medicare plays a role, Medicaid plays a role and private insurance plays a role.”
Meanwhile, Missourians such as Green are waiting for help.
Green said he has already drained his 401K account and said he can’t work because he would lose the Medicaid benefits he has been able to keep.
Without the support of his family, friends and church, Green said he and his children would be homeless.
“All of us are a disease or an accident away from being in the position I’m in,” Green said. “It’s a vacuum that just sucks you in.”
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