LEGISLATIVE REPORT: WELFARE AS WE KNEW IT RESURFACES

President Clinton and Gov. Carnahan have mounted an aggressive campaign this year to expand big government programs. They are advocating huge new government programs targeted at children which include an unprecedented expansion of Medicaid and government run day care.

Before we get caught up in the rhetoric surrounding these "feel-good" new programs we need to pause and think about the direction they will take us in years to come and the price we'll pay not only in tax dollars to support these programs, but more importantly, who should be making decisions about our children's healthcare and day care. What is the appropriate role of government in our lives? Should government make decisions for us? Would you rather make the decisions about your child's health care or should a bureaucrat make the decisions?

No one knows for sure how many uninsured children live in Missouri. Estimates range between 175,000 and 195,000. Nearly 170,000 children are estimated to be members of families whose incomes are below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Over 78,000 uninsured children in Missouri are eligible for Medicaid but parents are neither unaware of their eligibility or choose not to sign up for a government entitlement program.

There are also several other reasons why children are uninsured. A parent's employer doesn't offer health insurance, Medicaid is crowding out private insurance and competition. The vast majority of uninsured children have parents who work but they can't afford to purchase insurance because of the government treatment of taxes and health care. Also, many children go without health insurance for only a short period of time. These children DO NOT go without necessary health care.

The Medicaid program was created as part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in 1965. It was supposed to provide a modest safety net for LOWER income Americans.

Gov. Carnahan is pushing to expand Medicaid coverage to the middle class. If you are married with two children and your family income is up to $48,000 per year you will qualify for Medicaid.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in September 1997, Missouri's median household income is $35,059.

Gov. Carnahan's Medicaid expansion also includes what has become known as "Medicaid for millionaires." If you live in a school district in which at least 50 percent of the children qualify for free or reduced lunches, you automatically qualify for this entitlement regardless of your income.

There is a general public consensus that welfare and entitlement programs have failed because they lock people into a cycle of dependency. The state and the nation have spent the past few years "ending welfare as we know it."

This Medicaid expansion begins to return to us to welfare as we knew it. Winston Churchill once said, "If you don't look the fact in the face, they have a way of stabbing you in the back."

David Schwab is a state representative for the 157th district.