Health & Wealth Desk

End-of-life decisions can be wrenching for families. In the early 2000s, the case of Terri Schiavo riveted the nation, as her family battled over whether to remove her feeding tube or keep her on life support. Now, 44 states have so-called “family consent” laws, which help determine which family member should make health care decisions. Missouri is one of the six states with no such law, putting families and doctors in legal limbo. But a bill headed for the Missouri legislature could change that.

Two weeks ago, President Obama told the nation, “Washington has to live within its means.” As Democrats and Republicans continue to scour the federal budget for over a trillion dollars in possible cuts, one group very likely to be affected is rural hospitals in the Midwest and across the nation.

At public schools across the nation, internet filters keep students from looking at pornography and other material deemed harmful. It’s required under a federal law passed more than a decade ago. But now, one rural school district in central Missouri is at the heart of a national legal battle over whether schools may use this law to block websites that promote gay rights.

President Obama has been touring the country trying to sell voters on his American Jobs Act. According to the White House, the bill would, if passed, give the state of Missouri $700 million for transportation projects and cut the taxes of 120,000 Missouri businesses. And agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack says that rural areas in particular would benefit from the jobs bill. Vilsack spoke with KBIA’s Jacob Fenston.

Nearly one million more Americans were without health insurance in 2010, compared with the year before. That’s according to new Census numbers released Tuesday, which also show the Midwest has one of the lowest rates of uninsured in the nation. But even for people who have health insurance, understanding a doctor’s orders can be an obstacle to getting good care.