By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Governor Holden says cutting Missouri's
child health care program would be immoral.
A Republican-led House committee voted Wednesday to eliminate the MC-Plus for Kids program. It provides health care to about 80,000 children.
The children are from families that don't have private insurance but earn too much to qualify for the traditional Medicaid program.
Committee chairman Chuck Purgason of Caulfeild says the state can't afford the program any longer.
Republican committees have been trying to cut the state's budget to close a short-fall estimated at as much as one billion dollars next fiscal year.
But Holden says he will veto the budget bill if it includes the cut to the children's health care program.
The bill still has to go before the House and Senate.