Making due without Medicaid

Medicaid cuts passed in 2005 have reduced eligibility and services through the public health insurance system causing 114,525 participants to lose their health-care coverage, according to the Missouri Department of Social Services, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan, budget review organization.

Amy Blouin, executive director for the Missouri Budget Project, said low-income families were hardest hit, with 68,000 losing access to health care through the program. Eligibility for working parents is now set at 17 to 22 percent of the federal poverty level.

The cuts squeeze out those that can't afford private insurance, forcing them to abandon preventive care that will most likely result in more emergency room visits, she said.

Blouin said organization representatives are scheduled to meet with Missouri health-care policy adviser Jodi Stefanick late next week, where she hopes some details of Gov. Matt Blunt's recommendation for a new public health-care plan will be revealed.

Medicaid expires in 2008, she said, and the governor wants a new plan in place. Details of that plan are not yet available, despite media reports to the contrary, said Jessica Robinson, Blunt spokesperson.

Robinson said Monday executive agencies are looking at recommendations offered by a Medicaid task force in order to make their own recommendations to the governor this month. "Once the governor makes recommendations, it moves back to the General Assembly where there will be extensive dialogue," Robinson said. "The public then will have an opportunity to respond."

The cuts have left local groups to deal with the fallout.

Sara McDowell, a Cape Girardeau SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence case worker, said some of her clients have reported making tough choices in order to spend down to qualify for benefits under the revised plan. She said they are choosing between rent, utility bills and food to pay for medical prescriptions or supplies now that they are no longer in the plan or have had to reduce their income to remain in the program.

"It was rough trying to tell people [about the cuts] because they didn't understand. I can't tell you how many calls we've had from people who can't afford their medicine," she said. "We have had people get divorced to keep their benefits."

A Jackson woman has waited a year to appeal her case.

Vicki Abernathy, 58, suffers from Type I diabetes, which requires she wear a pump in her diaphragm to stay alive. The disease has affected her nervous system and she needs a cane to walk. A bout with thyroid cancer obliterated her thyroid, and Abernathy needs medication for that as well.

She met with Associate Circuit Judge Peter L. Statler in Cape Girardeau Common Pleas Court Monday for her case review.

Statler had sobering advice for Abernathy when he continued the case until Jan. 2. Without an attorney, Statler said he did not have much hope Abernathy would be successful in her appeal due to the administrative nature of the case, which he said can be complicated and involved even for attorneys to understand. Abernathy was undeterred.

"I will keep pursuing this," she said. "I don't know if I have the right to go to the Supreme Court, but I will go if I have to. I can't afford an attorney, so I'll have to represent myself and that's a scary thing."

Medicaid still gives her $1,800 in drugs for $200 to $300, she said. If not for the help of friends and family, Abernathy said she would be in a situation where she could lose her home.

"I have to meet a spend-down," she said. "My income is very, very low anyway. So after the spend-down it is very low."

Abernathy fears she could become a ward of the state if her appeal fails, something she said would cost taxpayers more than if she received full Medicaid benefits.

cschmidlkofer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127