Every day, people like Wortham end up calling organizations like the nonprofit Legal Services for Eastern Missouri to ask for help. And as the attorneys and advocates did for Wortham, they find out that the children still qualify for Medicaid coverage, and get them re-signed up, navigating the bureaucracy that is failing so many Missourians.

(Full disclosure: I am a client of the nonprofit, which is helping me get a friend of my family on Medicaid).

“It is extremely frustrating that people like Diedre, whose children clearly qualify, are having their coverage terminated,” says Joel Ferber, director of advocacy for legal services. “Her family’s situation is but one example of the unnecessary procedural hurdles families are forced to jump through to maintain their coverage. Fortunately she had access to a legal advocate to help her regain coverage but not everyone is so lucky.”

The problems started long before the Parson administration.