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Medicaid Cuts Spark Moral and Economic Debate

KCUR
Published May 10, 2005 at 4:18 PM CDT
Medicaid will pay for a heart transplant for Jennifer Shuman, but Shuman will soon have to pay nearly half her family income for Medicaid. She's not sure how she and her husband will afford the increase.
Medicaid will pay for a heart transplant for Jennifer Shuman, but Shuman will soon have to pay nearly half her family income for Medicaid. She's not sure how she and her husband will afford the increase.

By Frank Morris

Kansas City, MO – A Missouri budget that cuts more than 90-thousand people off of Medicaid is on Governor Matt Blunt's budget. The debate over Medicaid cuts this year has opened a moral schism, between service providers, patients and activists who deplore the cuts as cruel, and the governor who defends them as being morally correct.

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