Health & Wealth Desk

During the Great Recession, as the ranks of poor and unemployed swelled, enrollment in Medicaid shot up, growing by 7.8 percent in 2009. At the same time, state tax revenues collapsed by nearly 17 percent. States couldn't afford to pay their share of Medicaid costs, and Congress came to the rescue with the Recovery Act, boosting federal Medicaid funding by around $103 billion. But the recovery dollars ran out in June, and now states are facing the biggest yearly increase in Medicaid costs in history, according to projections by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Missouri already spends over a quarter of the state budget on Medicaid.

In 2019, the average Missouri family will be $1,471 richer. That’s how much the average family will save on health care each year once Obama’s reform law takes full effect, according to a new study by Families USA, a pro-reform group. 

There’s a doctor shortage in rural America. This is not news – just the opposite – it’s been going on for ages. Even old Doc Adams, the country doctor in “Gunsmoke,” was constantly overworked. In one episode, when he finally gets a vacation, he’s kidnapped by outlaws in need of his services. Present-day Missouri ain’t Dodge City, Kansas. But many rural doctors are still overstretched. 

For people with chronic conditions, getting Medicaid services can be a confusing, disjointed experience, shuffling from provider to provider. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, states can apply for federal money to help coordinate that care. Missouri did just that, and the news came today that the state will be the first to get this kind of funding under the ACA. Missouri’s application was aimed at helping people with chronic mental health issues. 

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.