State Medicaid Watch: Missouri

See this article. A few excerpts:

"People with disabilities seem to be targeted in virtually every area, from birth to death," said Terry Mackey, a parent of three developmentally disabled children and president of the Arthur Center, of Mexico, Mo., which provides mental health services for the state.

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[Governor] Blunt's budget includes a roughly 25 percent reduction in the income eligibility criteria for disabled Medicaid recipients - down to about $580 a month from the current $775. It also would eliminate a program that allows many disabled to continue their Medicaid coverage while working part-time. And it would end Medicaid coverage for such things as wheelchairs, ambulance rides and prosthetics.

The Division of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities would take a $27.4 million cut, leaving it with a budget of about $405 million. Those cuts include closing the Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in north St. Louis County, plus an estimated $14 million to community-based services as a result of the Medicaid eligibility changes, said department spokeswoman Jeanne Henry.