health & wealth update

Helping Missourians navigate the ACA marketplace will likely be a collaborative effort

Harum Helmy — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:05:54 +0000

Many Missourians will likely need help navigating the Affordable Care Act's new health insurance marketplace that's set to go online by Oct. 1, but one analyst says there might not be enough time or federal funding to train those who can help.

How Prop E did more than just stop Gov. Nixon from creating a state health exchange

Harum Helmy — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:16:15 +0000

A new report by an MU policy analyst warns about the consequences of a ballot measure passed by Missouri voters last November.

Farm bill is more than subsidies and food stamps

Amy Mayer — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:42:49 +0000

Beyond subsidies and food stamps, what’s in the farm bill?

With the election over, lawmakers are now returning to Washington for the final weeks of the 112^th Congress. Their schedule is packed, but House majority leader Eric Cantorhas said addressing the expired Farm Bill is on the agenda.

Telehealth can connect rural areas with medical care

Lee Jian Chung — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:31:35 +0000

In September, the state awarded grants to eleven rural Missouri hospitals to improve broadband internet connections speeds. The connection would be used for telehealth, a way rural towns access physicians in bigger cities electronically. KBIA’s Lee Jian Chung brings us the first of a two part series on the expansion of telehealth services in Missouri.

New autism guide helps parents and providers sift through mountains of research

Jacob Fenston — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:25:33 +0000

As more and more children are diagnosed with autism, there's also a lot more research on the disorder. Now, a new guidebook can help Missouri parents and people who work with kids on the autism spectrum sort through it all.

Half a million Missourians to gain insurance under health care law

Jacob Fenston — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:33:27 +0000

In Missouri, an estimated 835,000 people don't have health insurance – that's about 14 percent of the state's population. But in the next couple of years, that figure is going to change. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld most of the federal health care law, about half a million Missourians will join the rolls of the insured – either through Medicaid, the private insurance market, or with the help of subsidies provided by the federal government. The percentage of uninsured will drop to five percent of the population.

Missouri Medicaid expansion up in the air

Jacob Fenston — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:05:11 +0000

After last week's Supreme Court decision upholding most of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama declared victory. But there was one major gray cloud -- or silver lining, depending on your point of view -- leaving open the question of Missouri's participation in the expansion of Medicaid envisioned by the federal health care law.

Missouri's meth addiction, part two

Kyle Deas — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:28:25 +0000

In 2011, Missouri law enforcement busted about five meth labs each day on average – almost double the number of any other state. The state spends more than $2 million dollars a year on cleanup of these labs, and millions more on incarceration, child care, and drug treatment.

Pumkpins, melons and corn

Jacob Fenston — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:05:00 +0000

Columbia has lots of community gardens, and several school gardens. But school-community gardens? On Tuesday at Ridgewood Elementary, the school and community worked together to start planting the city's first community garden at a public school.

'Cocaine? No thanks!'

Jacob Fenston — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:40:38 +0000

Back in the late 1980s, while the nation was in the grips of the war on drugs, some courts started experimenting with alternative sentencing programs they hoped would be cheaper and more effective than incarceration. This week, the most recent batch of offenders graduated from the Boone County drug court, which is seen as a national role-model.