Crowell shows some common sense

To the editor:State Sen. Jason Crowell caused some lawmakers to fear an outbreak of common sense in Jefferson City recently by supporting the restoration of critical medical benefits stripped from Missouri's sick and disabled two years ago by Gov. Matt Blunt and the legislature.

A recent report by the prestigious not-for-profit national health-care advocacy group Families USA criticizes Blunt's Medicaid replacement called MO HealthNet stating that, "without proper implementation, this legislation (Senate Bill 577), could have catastrophic consequences for many Medicaid recipients, especially for the chronically ill and people with special health-care needs."

The entire report can be found at www.familiesusa.org.

Missouri lawmakers have played political games with the lives of Missouri's sick and disabled for two years now.

Advocates and the disabled are welcomed in Jefferson City with smiles, handshakes, trips to the floor of the House and Senate and photo opportunities with lawmakers while programs such as the ticket to work that would allow disabled Missourians to work and retain medical coverage have been held hostage for political purposes.

Rather than ensuring the welfare of the public, lawmakers in Jefferson City have embraced dead-end projects such as overturning the stem-cell initiative passed last year by Missouri voters, forcing through under a new name the disastrous Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment that nearly wrecked Colorado's economy and passing legislation for prayer in public schools that is sure to be declared unconstitutional in federal court.

Ironically, Missouri's most vulnerable may be left with only a prayer for health coverage.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson