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Voters passed Medicaid expansion

Posted

To the Editor,

In 2020 Missouri voters passed the amendment to the Missouri Constitution for Medicaid Expansion.  Ever since then the republican led legislature has done a number of things to deny the voters this

constitutional right.

In yet another attempt to circumvent the voter’s wishes the republican led congress is in the process of passing bill HJR117 which will effectively defund Medicaid Expansion and place work requirements on those who have signed up under Medicaid Expansion.

When our republican representative Benny Cook was contacted his reasoning for voting for the bill and against the constitution is that the voters of Texas County voted against Medicaid Expansion.

What Benny Cook did not expand on for good reason is that yes 4045 Texas County voters voted No to Medicaid expansion BUT in 2019 and 2020 there were 26,008 residents of Texas and 5,693 of those residents are children which a good number would benefit from Medicaid expansion since Texas County is one of the poorest counties in the state.

When Benny took office, he took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the State of Missouri.  Article 1, Section 1 of the Missouri Constitution states: that all political power is in and derived from the people. The people voted to add Medicaid Expansion to the Missouri Constitution and he took and oath to uphold the constitution.

When Benny Cook was running for office, he was asking for all Texas County residents to support and vote for him.  At the last count Texas County had 16,186 voters and Benny Cook is pandering to only those 4050 voters (2020 election) leaving all the other voters and especially all the other approximately 22,000 residents of Texas County without any representation let alone possible medical coverage.



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