"We appreciate the public acknowledgment of this crisis being real," Quade said. The children were dropped from the program when their parents, about 30,000 adults the state determined didn't qualify, were. The entire families should not have been axed from MO HealthNet, Missouri's Medicaid program, because the children still qualified.

Republican state Rep. David Wood, vice chairman of the House Budget Committee, said, "We probably didn't do as good a job as we could have to notify them to reapply for their children. […] We should probably do a better job of that." You think? He also blamed the parents, though, saying that it is their responsibility to find coverage for their kids—even when the state failed to notify them that their kids could still be in the Medicaid program.

Another problem is that parents have to re-enroll their children four times every single year. Enrollment only lasts three months. Democrats are trying to get that changed, as well as calling for every child who was incorrectly dropped to be re-enrolled. So far, Republican Gov. Mike Parson is refusing to put a halt to children being kicked off of coverage.