West County Democrats

Years ago I served on a panel interviewing job candidates for a senior position in the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Of course, even back then you couldn’t cross certain lines during interviews.  The state played an instructional video on how to follow the rules, emphasizing how the candidate performed in prior positions:  the past largely predicts the future.

My partner in crime and I added a second criteria.  We wanted candidates who demonstrated empathy for those needing help.

Today’s state leaders never saw that video, nor do they feel empathy.

Thus we look at the Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and the MO HealthNet Division of the Department of Social Services for September 2024.  [ www.dss.mo/re ] 

The number of Missouri citizens on Temporary Assistance crept up, to 13,703 people – a 7.2% increase from 9/23.  The average benefit remains anemic, $7.98 per family per day to pay rent, utilities and all other non-food bills.

Food Stamps lost 1,485 participants from August to September while compared to a year ago the number helped was down by 440 people.  This September 667,117 received benefits averaging $2.19 per person per meal (up 7¢ from a year ago).

Here comes the despicable part…

On September 30, 2024 just 1,297,100 Missouri citizens were enrolled in MO HealthNet.  That’s down 14.4% — 212,982 people – from September 2023’s total of 1,510,082.

The current estimated population of Springfield, Missouri is 170,525 [ www.worldpopulationreview.com ], so, in one year Medicaid shed 40,000 more people than the number calling Springfield home.  That’s a lot.

As I’ve said before, the individual groups within the MO HealthNet report are painful.

• One in six children on Medicaid left the program in the past year (127,551 kids).
• One in four Persons with Disabilities left the program in the past year (42,450 disabled citizens).
• Almost one in three Custodial Parents left the program in the past year (37,214 parents).

The only way this can be happening is under a direct order from the Parson administration to reduce the MO HealthNet rolls at all costs!  Disabled folk who struggle to get medical care don’t throw it away on a whim.

Let’s look ahead…

The GOP candidate for Governor, Mike Kehoe has publicly promised that he will not allow abortion in Missouri no matter what the voters decide.  The current edition of MidRivers News Magazine – the local paper for that Republican Utopia of St. Charles County – includes a number of ads by candidates promising to stop abortion.  One even uses his space to reprint the lies repeated by current Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and the Missouri Catholic Conference about the amendment allowing minors to get sex change operations without parents consent.

So, in light of the way the GOP now ignores the will of voters who endorsed Medicaid Expansion (after previously rejecting the voters’ wished on puppy mill regulations, concealed carry and other matters) what will happen after Amendment 3 is enacted?

I bet lunch money that legal abortion is five years of expensive state and federal court challenges from becoming available in Missouri.

Alas, empathy didn’t become a hot topic on that DMH panel.  The group’s majority went with a person my partner and I considered a cold fish, concerned with numbers not people.

The good news is that our preferred candidate did get another job with the Department of Mental Health a few months later: she lasted less than a year in Jefferson City.

Glenn Koenen