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Missouri Medicaid application delays exceed federal limits for third straight month
Missouri’s backlog of Medicaid applications dropped in February, but the average time it took to determine eligibility for them continued to exceed the federal limit. The median time it took Missouri’s social services department to process Medicaid applications for low-income Missourians in February was 77 days, an agency spokesperson told The Independent. That means half […]
Hopes still high for bills to stop Missouri from seizing benefits owed to foster kids
Despite setbacks in both the House and Senate leading up to legislative spring break, proponents of bills seeking to end Missouri’s practice of seizing Social Security benefits from foster children expect to regain momentum on the issue when lawmakers return to Jefferson City next week. In the Senate, GOP state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of […]
Missouri bill would expand death penalty to certain sex crimes against children
A bill that would add child sex trafficking and statutory rape to the crimes eligible for the death penalty was debated Monday in a Missouri Senate committee — despite conflicting with U.S. Supreme Court precedent. The legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican who said Monday that one of the […]
Troy-based Toyota plant workers launch campaign to unionize
More than 30% of workers at a Troy-based Toyota manufacturing plant have signed union cards, prompting them to go public with their campaign on Wednesday to join the United Auto Workers union. Troy is the first Toyota plant nationally where workers have gone public with a union drive — and the latest in a string […]
90,000 Missouri kids are eligible for food aid they haven’t claimed that’s about to expire
Missouri families who haven’t claimed food benefits in a program launched during the height of the pandemic could lose out in the coming weeks unless they act quickly. Federal pandemic-era summer food benefits, referred to as P-EBT, were designed to help cover costs in summer 2022 but did not begin being disbursed in Missouri until […]
Records show rising call center wait times for Missouri Medicaid, food assistance
Missourians in need of help accessing public benefits saw wait times for the state’s long-overloaded call center increase in the final months of 2023. The average hold time for the state phone line dealing with food assistance interviews reached 1 hour and 12 minutes in December, more than double what they had been in August, […]
State still hasn’t implemented law aimed at helping Missourians transition off public benefits
A law enacted last year aimed at helping individuals transition out of public assistance programs remains in limbo, with Missouri’s social services agency saying it can’t implement the change without a huge infusion of state funding. The impasse is, in many ways, unsurprising. The legislation, which was approved with bipartisan support, came with a fiscal […]
Missouri lawmakers seek to ban child marriage without exception
A bipartisan bill debated in a state Senate committee Monday would ban child marriage in Missouri. Under current law, 16 and 17-year-olds are allowed to get married with parental consent. Marriage between a minor and anyone 21 or older is prohibited. The legislation discussed Monday afternoon would prohibit issuing marriage licenses to anyone under the […]
Legislation aims to stop Missouri from seizing federal benefits owed to foster kids
Missouri’s practice of taking millions of dollars in Social Security benefits owed to foster kids to defray the cost of providing care could come to an end under legislation debated last week in a House committee. The state took at least $6.1 million in foster kids’ benefits last year — generally Social Security benefits for […]
Missouri child care crisis a top priority for governor, bipartisan group of lawmakers
In early 2020, Peapod Learning Center in Springfield had a waiting list years out. The nature and farm preschool earned state recognition as it continued to expand after opening more than a decade earlier. “It was off the charts wonderful,” said owner and director Carly Walton. Then the pandemic hit. By June 2020, the farm […]
‘Perfect storm’: Missouri advocates decry Medicaid application delays, coverage losses
Hannah Kaplanis applied to Missouri’s Medicaid program nearly two months ago, but hasn’t received any response from the state. Just shy of 18 weeks pregnant, she’s in need of prenatal care and growing increasingly hopeless. Aside from a free ultrasound in November, she hasn’t been able to access any care. She called Missouri’s Medicaid helpline […]
Group of Republican lawmakers raise concerns about Missouri death penalty
A group of Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the death penalty and advocated for legislation that would abolish it in Missouri during a Tuesday press conference at the state Capitol — characterizing it as an issue of restraining government overreach and protecting life. Rep. Chad Perkins, a Republican from Bowling Green, has filed legislation to […]