Speakout 2/3

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

I read your recent editorial on Medicaid waste, as disclosed by a recent audit. Here is something else you might want to check into. The Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Division of the Department of Mental Health is attempting to move some clients out of habilitation centers and into community placements. So far, so good. But, in order to do this, they will pay a provider $212 per day (as an "incentive"), no matter what the actual cost is. After about 18 months, the cost will be evaluated and dropped back to actual costs, but, in the meantime, the provide will be pocketing a lot of taxpayer dollars for no good reason (e.g. if the actual cost was only $100 per day, the extra taxpayer cost for 18 months would be over $60,000.) Incentives are nice, but given the state and federal budget, do you think taxpayers should absorb this extravagant waste of money? For obvious reasons, please do not disclose your source of this info. Bureaucrats love to retaliate against whistleblowers.

There is a big eyesore on Hardin St. in Sikeston. Help!

Call the City of Sikeston at 471-2512 and leave a message for Code Enforcement.

I called to have what I wanted to say put in SpeakOut, but I never see my views in your paper. So I want to know why not? I thought the paper was a way for the people to speakout, but I guess it's how much money you have. So if you are poor you want to see your ad in SpeakOut. All I want to say is, our state representatives like Peter Myers and JoAnn Emerson and our government sit by and say they are there for all the people when it's a lie. I lost my job because the Department of Transportation law said I cannot drive a truck anymore because I have seizures and no one else will hire me because of the same thing. I'm losing my house because they won't let me have my unemployment or disability. I lost my job in May and still don't have a job. All I want is what's mine. It was taken out of my check each week.

I want to comment on the people who are being busted for drugs and then their names or pictures are being put in the paper, like hard-core criminals. I am not condoning what they do. But if you're going to put people's names or pictures in the paper after being busted, but not yet charged, then you should do that to everyone who gets busted, not just the ones who cannot afford to keep their mistake a secret. Some people do drugs because they cannot face reality and the drugs help them escape it for awhile. But then they become addicted because once the drug wears off, they think they need more drugs to escape again. Some people try drugs and then realize that's not what they want in their life. Believe me, I know, because at one point in my life, when I was single and thought I was all alone, I dabbled in crank and to this day I sometimes drink too much to escape reality. Everyone has a form of escape of some sort, whether it be illegal or legal. For instance: depression pills, eating disorders, working too much, etc. I could not imagine having my name or picture in the paper before I realized what a mistake I was making. I know you're just doing your job as a business that gets the news out to the people, but please, be fair to everyone and not just to the ones who can afford to keep their names out of the news media. People need help, not embarrassment.

If anyone knows a doctor or nurse practitioner who will make house calls for someone who has had a stroke and can't get to a doctor, please leave a name and phone number in SpeakOut, where I can see it.