Blunt backs spending for expanded Medicaid services

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Governor Matt Blunt is proposing to spend millions of dollars to expand women's health care, dental and optical coverage for people on Mediciad.

The dental and optical care were cut in 2005 by Blunt and Republican lawmakers.

A law passed this year reauthorized coverage for those items while renaming Medicaid as the Mo HealthNet program. That law also authorized an expansion of women's health care services to more than 80,000 people.

But this year's budget included no money for those services, so they have not yet begun.

Blunt says he will include money for the services in a supplemental budget request for the fiscal year that ends in June. He also will propose funding them in next year's budget.