By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A new report finds that the number of Missourians without health insurance continues to grow, while the amount of public funds to pay for them does not.
The Missouri Foundation for Health's report points out that the cost of providing health care to the state's uninsured in 2005 was about three-quarters of $1 billion.
President of the Foundation, Dr. James Kimmey, says that while federal and state revenues were sufficient to cover the costs of care last year, that will likely change.
"More and more businesses are cutting back on providing health insurance as a fringe benefit or they're adding costs to the individual that the individual can't afford and so the individual is dropping the insurance even though it's available," Kimmey said.
The Missouri legislature will have to deal with replacing Medicaid by June of 2008 and Kimmey says that could worsen the problem of uninsured residents.