To the editor:

On April 16, more than 2,500 members of the Missouri Medicaid Coalition gathered at the Missouri Capitol to request expansion of Missouri Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

This would have provided coverage to more than 260,000 uninsured people — many of them are working and unable to afford coverage due to their part-time status and salary that makes them ineligible to apply for state Medicaid assistance.

A family of three can only make $3,504 a year to be eligible for Medicaid under our current system. This is inexcusable and should be addressed immediately in light of federal matching dollars currently available or this expansion.

If Missouri decides to expand the coverage to 138 percent of poverty level, this same family would be eligible for Medicaid with a maximum salary of $26,344.

These people are our daycare workers, food-service workers and many more that need proper health care to continue to have the public they serve protected from disease. This will also help those who are seeking employment through temporary help services.

This was the largest group congregating at the Capitol to support this single issue, and the Missouri Legislature adjourned at noon that day for lunch and did not reconvene. Many legislators did not return to the Capitol building at all to speak with their constituents individually in their offices.

Instead, they slipped over to the Farm Bureau’s office for the remainder of the day to avoid responding to their constituents’ presence in the Capitol. This subject deserves proper attention by our elected representatives and respect to the public they are supposed to serve.

I hope those representatives who chose to stay at the Capitol that day can convince their runaway colleagues to pay attention to saving 15,000 lives, creating 24,000 jobs and protecting Missouri hospitals from devastating federal cuts.