The One Big Beautiful Bill requires states to pay for some food assistance under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program based on error rates. Kansas had a rate of 9.4%, while Missouri’s error rate is 8.7%. Advocacy groups want the penalties delayed to avoid service cuts.

Cases of the intestinal illness, which can cause explosive diarrhea, rose to nearly 300 this week in Kansas, up from 55 last week, according to numbers from the state.

Missouri health officials said they are confident the number of reported cases reflects exposure to contaminated food inside the state. But investigators are still working to identify the source of the outbreak.

Taylor Farms, a vegetable producer linked to the outbreak, issued a recall of iceberg lettuce shipped to 27 states, including Missouri.

New work requirements and twice-yearly eligibility checks are expected to cause millions of adults to lose Medicaid coverage. But community religious leaders and health advocates have been meeting every other week to plan and strategize about how to mitigate the damage.

Amendment 5, to be considered by Missouri voters in August, would give the legislature the power to replace the state income tax with expanded sales taxes. Critics say it would be difficult to make up the lost revenue without imposing taxes on healthcare.

Missouri still has far fewer reported cases of cyclospora, the parasitic infection than other Midwest states. Cylosporiasis symptoms include nausea and watery diarrhea.

The Kansas health department reported a jump in cyclosporiasis, the intestinal disease that causes explosive diarrhea, from 22 infections last week to 55. It can be caused by eating fresh produce that's been contaminated by the parasite, and salad greens are a likely culprit.

Among the legislation signed by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is a wide-reaching public health bill that requires the state to track cases of Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome, and allows people to obtain up to 12 months of birth control pills at once.

The legislature-mandated report reviewed pregnancy-related deaths between 2019 and 2023. During that period, 340 Missouri women died while pregnant or within one year after the end of a pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains hopes to offer abortion services at all of its Missouri health centers, including Independence. They’re also expanding other sexual and reproductive health care into Louisiana.

Missouri's 25% drop in Obamacare marketplace enrollment is at least partly due to expiration of pandemic-era subsidies, experts say.