Medicaid cuts are now permanent

To the editor:In January 2006 I wrote to Gov. Matt Blunt concerning the Medicaid cuts he made.

He implied to me in an answer to my letter that those cuts would increase funding for Missouri schools. He also implied that Medicaid was social welfare.

I do not believe the governor can rightly compare elderly disabled adults and children to recipients of welfare. If they were able to work, they would.

Because of the cuts, 400,000 Missourians -- 55,000 being children -- are without health-care coverage.

The governor stated that too many people were on the program with no stable source of revenue to pay for it.

The governor gave back $1 billion to the federal government that could have been used for the Medicaid program.

The Bible states that there will always be the sick and poor among us and we should take care of them. That is the Christian way.

I read the 75 percent of Missourians want health coverage restored for those cut from the program, but the governor isn't listening.

The governor signed Senate Bill 577, the Missouri Health Net Law, on July 2.

Because of this law, the cuts the governor made in 2005 are permanent.

LINDA SANDERS, Jackson