Clara Bates
Reporter | The Missouri IndependentClara Bates covers social services and poverty for The Missouri Independent. She previously worked for the Nevada Current, where she reported on labor violations in casinos, hurdles facing applicants for unemployment benefits and lax oversight of the funeral industry. She also wrote about vocational education for Democracy Journal. Bates is a graduate of Harvard College and a member of the Report for America Corps.
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There are currently 253 people in Missouri jails waiting to be transferred to a state hospital for mental health treatment. -
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch gave Missouri an "F" grade for its compliance with international child rights standards. Missouri still allows 16-year-olds to be married, and allows corporal punishment in public and private schools.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's office filed a brief arguing a trial court decision that forbid the state from zeroing out the Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood services should be reversed.
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The state is moving forward to change how it calculates payment rates for its Self-Directed Supports program — a situation families say took them by surprise and that they fear could mean rates for caretakers are frozen at low levels or become unpredictable.
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As some states wrap up this year’s summer food aid program, Missouri is still distributing last year’s benefits. Officials say they must complete dispersal by the end of this year
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In June and July, the first two months of resumed Medicaid eligibility checks, nearly three-quarters of those who lost coverage lost it for procedural reasons rather than determined ineligibility.
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An inspections backlog grew in Missouri during the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated more recently by staffing shortages and a spike in complaints that have tapped available resources
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A July report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national policy group, found that 19 of Missouri’s 57 rural hospitals are at risk of shuttering because of “serious financial problems.”
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June was the first month of eligibility reviews for Missouri's roughly 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees. Children accounted for half of all the state's Medicaid terminations, mostly for procedural reasons.
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The increased reimbursement rate will go to child care providers who accept a subsidy to increase access for low-income and foster families.
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The state said this week it will not participate in a federal program that would provide $120 in benefits to each eligible child, citing administrative hurdles. The decision sparked anger from Missouri parents, who say that officials "basically just robbed us."
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The legislation changes Missouri law by requiring judges start each child custody case with the presumption that “equal or approximately equal” parenting time for each parent is in the child’s best interests. But the bill, passed in the final hour of the legislative session, could make it more difficult for victims to escape abusive relationships and protect their children.
![From left: Kendyl Underwood, a 20-year-old St. Louis University student studying nursing, demonstrates in support of abortion rights on Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. “The only thing we can do is push back,” Underwood said. “It’s not democracy for [the Supreme Court] to pass this and we have to make that heard.”](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/718e17a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2999x1671+0+223/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdf%2Fd9%2F0785d3bb476d87884bab7ce7eec8%2F06242022-bm-pp-8a.JPG)
