Jefferson City, MO – The number of Missourians on Medicaid has increased by nearly 5 percent over the past year. KWMU's Marshall Griffin reports:
More than 871,000 Missouri residents were on the state's Medicaid rolls as of June 2009. That's 39,000 more than in June of last year.
Scott Rowson is with the Department of Social Services.
ROWSON: "Certainly it's an indicator of the poor state of the economy...I think there are just a lot of families out there hurting, and unfortunately, qualifying for Medicaid."
Rowson says they're expecting Missouri's Medicaid rolls to continue growing. The largest increase was in children covered by either traditional Medicaid or by the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.