Letters: Readers discuss expanding Medicaid in Missouri and a tip for marriage

Medicaid needs

I read Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s Jan. 16 guest commentary, “Take off the red and blue jerseys. Time to work on health care.” (11A) I thought it was his job to support the best interests of Missourians. But his joining a lawsuit, brought by 18 Republican attorneys general, that challenges the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is the opposite of what would expand health care.

One thing Schmitt could do now is use his influence to move Missouri to pass Medicaid expansion.

Over the past three decades, I have worked to expand health care services for the uninsured. Still, Missouri has not acted on the resources made available through the ACA. This means:

▪ More than 200,000 Missourians will continue to lack access to affordable health care.

▪ More rural hospitals will close.

▪ We will watch $1.5 billion of taxpayer money leave our state to fund other states’ coverage programs, according to the Urban Institute.

▪ Missouri will continue to rank 42nd in maternal death rate.

We can change this picture. We can expand Medicaid in Missouri. We need everyone’s support.

- Alice Kitchen, Jobs with Justice, Kansas City

Simple formula

When people ask me to share the secret to being married for 60 years, I tell them that three words go a long way: “please” and “thank you.”

- Thomas A. Janes, Lee’s Summit