By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

You're serving in the Missouri House and here's the question: Would you give up your free coffee and complementary lapel pins so the state could afford health insurance for low-income kids with autism?

Frustrated because House Republicans have balked at expanding access to medical care this session, freshman Jason Kander, a Democrat from Kansas City, posed that dilemma to his colleagues in the form of an amendment last week.

The GOP-dominated House appeared on the verge of voting down the amendment. But leaders, seeing a public relations debacle in the making, told GOP lawmakers in swing districts to support the amendment.

A clever move by Kander, who also got his colleagues to agree to an increase in their medical insurance premium, freeing up enough money so that some low-income kids with cancer can receive Medicaid coverage.

The money made available by House members sacrificing their own perks, when combined with federal matching funds, amounts to a big enough pot of money to help some people.

It's just too bad Republicans basically have to be tricked into taking care of the state's most vulnerable constituencies.

Kander reported for work the next morning to find his desk buried in half-empty coffee cups. "A pretty decent little prank from my colleagues," he wrote in a newsletter.