Child advocates have kicked off a 127 mile bus tour on Highway 63 to raise awareness of the needs of Missouri children. The distance from Jefferson City to Kirksville is about 127 miles. Citizens for Missouri’s Children is using each mile to represent 1,000 Missouri children without health insurance.
"Missouri needs to expand our public health insurance programs and also to increase outreach and enrollment methods to help enroll more uninsured kids," said Director of Programs and Policy Emily Schwartze.
Citizens for Missouri’s Children is a nonprofit, non-partisan, public interest organization.
About two-thirds of uninsured Missouri children are eligible for public health coverage, but are not enrolled, Schwartze said. Children who have access to medical, dental and mental health care are better students, which give them better opportunities in the future.
"Missouri’s children really are the future of the state and it’s very important that we invest in our states’ children," she said. "This is the next generation of children and we want to be sure that this next generation of children are healthy, are educated and will hopefully grow into engaged and productive citizens of our state."
Children are the best economic investment the state can make, Schwartze said.
"As we help parents provide safe and quality care for their children as we help them do that with subsidies we are also then helping in an economic stimulus package by giving them more money to spend in other areas for their family," executive director, Scott Gee added. "Right now everybody needs every dollar they to support their family because our wages aren’t going as far as our expenses are currently."
When you go to vote on November 4 th , officials with Citizens for Missouri’s Children encourage you to think about who will best represent Missouri children no matter the party affiliation.