Local Masonic Lodge Recognized.

The Carthage Masonic Lodge No.197 was presented the Grand Lodge of Missouri Traveling Publicity Award last week during the annual communication of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Missouri held in Columbia.

Of the hundreds of Masonic Lodges in the State, Carthage was chosen as the number one lodge for its outstanding public image. The trophy will remain on display in Carthage until the next annual Grand Lodge Communication, to be held in Springfield, September of 2003, when a new winner will be chosen.

"We will make every effort to keep the trophy in Carthage," says Larry Maggard, WM of the local lodge. Many charitable events for the area are already in the making. It should prove to be another great year."

Carthage No. 197 also received an achievement award as well as a Gold ritual award, the highest attainable.

SHORT-SIGHTED DECISIONS HARM MISSOURI'S MOST VULNERABLE.

by Steve Hunter

127th District State Representative

A program aimed at serving low-income Missourians that earn more than the Medicaid eligibility limit was dealt a serious blow as part of the Governor's 2003 budget. Medicaid's Spenddown program allows Missourians earning more than 70 percent of the federal poverty level who are age 65 and over or permanently and totally disabled to 'spend down' their income to the Medicaid eligibility level if those expenses are for necessary medical care in order to get Medicaid coverage. However, a change recommended by the Governor and signed into law has increased the financial burden that these approximately 26,000 Missourians have to bear in order to become eligible for Medicaid.

Missouri's Medicaid rolls have increased by 59 percent since 1993 to more than 800,000 at a cost of $3.7 billion. Congressional welfare reform of one Medicaid program- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families- led rolls to decrease from 79,076 in fiscal year 1996 to 51,064 in fiscal year 1999.

However, Missouri's TANF rolls have again increased to 70,399 in fiscal year 2001. I am concerned that part of this growth may be explained by the utilization of tactics that expand coverage to as many people as possible without regard for long-term fiscal consequences.

Medicaid Spenddown requires individuals to incur costs associated with medical care based on a formula prior to becoming eligible for Medicaid coverage. However, individuals participating in the program have figured out a way to avoid paying these costs and pass them onto the state, even though the federal government had intended for the participants to pay out of pocket. While it is unclear how participants first learned of this idea, legislators have heard reports that the Department of Social Services encouraged use of this tactic as a means to expand Medicaid coverage at no cost to individuals that would not otherwise qualify. The federal government has indicated that participants must stop this practice and spend up front costs out of pocket, because the Department of Social Services should have never paid these qualifying expenses for individuals in the first place.

Spenddown participants have built family budgets without having to pay these up front qualifying costs out of pocket because Missouri potentially violated federal regulations.

Under this new change, Spenddown participants will have to find ways to save money in their already tight budgets so they can continue Medicaid coverage. In the rush to provide Medicaid to as many individuals as possible, it seems the Department failed to think of long-term consequences associated with this tactic.

In 2001 legislation was passed increasing the Medicaid eligibility limit to include many of these individuals and avoid a mess like the one we're facing now with Spenddown, but the Governor did not include funding for it in his budget proposal. While the Governor and legislature share blame in this mess, it has been brought on by the Department's failure to consider long-term consequences. Now thousands of Missouri's most vulnerable citizens are being told that they will have to suffer because of the Department's actions. Missouri should slow down and consider long-term financial consequences on the state budget brought on by the rush to add more people to Medicaid rolls, and refocus efforts to help those with the greatest need.

I make it a habit of not knowin’ when daylight savin’s time goes off. I prefer to let the shorter days kinda creep up and not notice it so much. All I know is that sometime before Halloween it’s dark in the evenin’s all the sudden. Just one more example of things I really don’t wanna know.

‘Course my uncle still refuses to acknowledge daylight savin’s time at all, never changin’ his clocks. I used ta think it was his way of bein’ a little rebellious, but I’m startin’ to think it has more to doe with his sense of humor. All through the summer months I think he snickers a little to see folks movin’ about thinkin’ they know what time it is, when all the while he is onea the few actually functionin’ on "real" time.

Soon the rest of us will return to his reality. You can’t fool mother nature for long.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I remember reading about a new therapy for stroke patients in a column of yours. I didn’t cut it out, but I wish I had. My dad just had a stroke, and I would appreciate it if you could repeat the technique and its name. Thank you. — K.F.

ANSWER: The therapy is CIM, constraint-induced movement.

CIM treatment immobilizes a stroke patient’s good arm or good leg. For arm and hand training, the patient wears a large, inflexible mitten on the good hand. That takes the unaffected limb out of commission. Then the therapist gives the patient specific tasks for the affected arm and hand.

The program is intensive. For two weeks, the therapist works with the patient one-on-one from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s taxing for patient and therapist. After two weeks, the patient continues the exercises at home.

There are reasonable explanations why it works. A stroke does not kill all the brain cells in the section of brain that was deprived of blood. Some cells are stunned but not destroyed. CIM wakens those cells, and they begin to transmit signals to the paralyzed limb. Or, the intensive training causes the brain to rewire its circuitry, and viable brain cells take on the task of serving muscles that had been served by the stroke-damaged brain centers. CIM is not widely available throughout North America. Furthermore, patients must meet some requirements. They must have some movement in the affected leg or arm. Only about 20 percent qualify. It would be cruel to give the impression that this is miracle therapy for all stroke patients. It is not.