Lawyers make cases in suit over Missouri Medicaid expansion

(AP) A Missouri judge is weighing whether the state should be forced to expand Medicaid health insurance coverage.

A trial before Cole County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Jon Beetem over the future of the program concluded Monday. Voters last year amended the state constitution to expand access to the health insurance program to hundreds of thousands more low-income adults. But Gov. Mike Parson says he won’t expand Medicaid because the Legislature refused to pay for it.

Two single mothers and another low-income woman have sued to try to force Missouri to provide coverage as called for in the state constitution.