The push to spend

Once again, bureaucrats in Jefferson City, Mo., are looking for ways to get more Missourians to accept state-funded handouts.

This time, it's the Missouri SenioRx Program. In recent years, the state also has had fewer than anticipated state residents sign up for a children's health-care program and for special benefits for veterans.

The SenioRx Program is for Missouri's elderly residents who may need assistance with prescription drugs. If income qualifications and deductibles are met, senior citizens can get 60 percent of their drug costs paid by the program.

There are any number of reasons that only 21,900 Missourians signed up for the SenioRx Program instead of the 55,000 state officials anticipated. (As many as 150,000 Missourians may meet the program's guidelines.)

Among those reasons are the fact that participating senior citizens must pay a small fee to participate. Some elderly Missourians say they signed up for the program, paid the enrollment fee but failed to exceed the deductible of $250 or $500, depending on income. As a result, the number of participants has actually dropped to fewer than 19,000.

Other factors may include pride -- an unwillingness on the part of many senior citizens to accept government handouts. Another may be a distrust of any government program. Even the SenioRx Program's executive director said, "They don't trust government."

But, as with the efforts for children's health care and veterans benefits, the state is embarking on a program to find more participants.

This means spending money for publicity. And, if the campaign is successful, the state will have to pay more benefits at a time when Missouri's budget planners are having a hard time matching available revenue with expenses.

Is this a reasonable course of action in a time of budget stress? Many Missouri taxpayers may well wonder whether programs that aren't readily accepted by their intended beneficiaries deserve any extra effort -- or expense.