State Medicaid Watch: Missouri

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Occasional eye exams are in, but not the glasses. Motorized wheelchairs will be covered, but not the batteries to run them.

That's the real-life effect for thousands of Missourians under a budget plan agreed to Monday by legislative negotiators that cuts the services available through the state's Medicaid health care program.

All told, the budget would eliminate Medicaid coverage for a projected 90,604 low-income parents, seniors and disabled over the next year. Numerous others would be forced to pay more out of their pockets through premiums, co-payments and personal medical expenses.

And hundreds of thousands of adults remaining on Medicaid would have their benefits cut. Besides eye glasses and wheelchair equipment, the state also would stop paying for such things as dental care, hearing aids, canes, crutches and rehabilitation therapies.