Importance of Mo. Medicaid expansion grows

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Importance of Mo. Medicaid expansion grows

Fri, 05/22/2020 - 03:16
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As a primary care doctor, I cringe when I am paged on-call at 2 a.m. by a patient with chest pain who won’t go to the emergency department because of lack of insurance. With sadness and frustration, I must persuade the patient that this is an emergency and he could die from a heart attack. Debating financial devastation versus life-saving care on the phone with a man in pain while the clock is ticking is a foolish injustice. Our state has left more than 230,000 Missourians similarly without access to affordable health care. Catching a heart attack early or assuring health care to prevent heart disease in the first place is an obvious, humane and cost-effective strategy. The plight of my uninsured patients is made even more bitter, knowing that our tax dollars are going to Washington to fund Medicaid expansion for 36 other states. That can change, now that petitions from nearly 350,000 Missourians asking the state to let voters decide on Medicaid expansion have been submitted to the…

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