Missouri Issues April 2025 DSS Benefit Report
The short version: SNAP (food stamps) and Temporary Assistance are almost exactly where they were a year ago. The number of citizens covered by Medicaid is down thanks to bureaucratic ineptitude.
A few years back Missouri gutted Temporary Assistance with a 60-month lifetime limit and other restrictions. The number of citizens helped dropped from around 110,000 to the current 12,530. [May 2025 DSS FSD/MHN Monthly Management Report dss.mo/re]
Well, we now know that even with impediments steeper than the steps from Sullivan Boulevard to the Arch even Missouri can’t get the number receiving Temporary Assistance below 12,000. (A grand 13,240 people received benefits in February 2025.) Of course indicators of poverty and wages point towards a much greater need, but, hey, The Missouri Way is to help as few as possible.
Temporary Assistance
April 2025 April 2024
Kids 9,451 9,807
Adults 3,079 3,073
Total 12,530 12,880
Per Family $231.25 $228.35
Per Day $ 7.71 $ 7.61
Meanwhile, food stamps (aka SNAP) is being held down to 652,427 recipients. “Held down” because Missouri lost a federal lawsuit that proved the state devotes inadequate resources for qualified citizens to access the program. Most activity must go through Department of Social Services Call Centers. Despite that federal court order some people wait over four hours to get to talk to a person. The judge wants that wait under 20 minutes, but don’t hold your breath. And, once callers get to a person all too often that voice on the other end of the line isn’t the correct staffer for their issue.
Food Stamps
April 2025 April 1024
Participants 652,427 650,613
Benefits
Per Person $ 195.94 $195.56
Per Meal $ 2.18 $ 2.17
Here’s the kicker…Despite court actions, an amendment to the state constitution and federal reimbursement rates which make expanding Medicaid profitable, the ineptitude and unwillingness to work of state employees handling the program resulted in a 2.2% drop in covered citizens from 4/24 to 4/25!
It gets worse. The greatest number dropped from the rolls were children. On a percentage basis, custodial parents took the steepest hit.
MO HealthNet (Medicaid)
April 2025 April 2024
Disabled 121,644 139,379 — 12.7%
Elderly 95,804 93,846 + 2.1%
Parents 72,148 93,194 — 22.6%
Children 573,615 631,157 — 9.1%
Preg.Women 32,490 27,793 + 16.9%
Adult Expand 348,821 333,801 + 4.5%
Women Health 24,280 22,179 + 9.5%
TOTAL 1,268,802 1,319,166 – 2.2%
Yes, Medicaid is very expensive: $1,349,718,831 for April alone. Please remember that the bulk of those covered are in Managed Care plans – a whopping 78%, or a bit over a million people out of 1.27 million covered. The average Managed Care premium was $395.98 in April.
Here comes the next tornado…
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, as passed by the U. S. House of Representatives, requires serious cuts to Medicaid and food stamp funding as well as imposing nationwide “work requirements.”
Missouri’s share of Medicaid cuts could be in the billions of dollars per year. And, Missouri would have to supply from 10% [about $13 million per month] to 25% of the food stamp benefit costs, plus pay a greater share of the administrative expenses. Add it up and the Missouri legislature will have to find another $4 to $5 billion per year to maintain existing benefits. (I’ll start the betting at 80 to 1 odds on that happening.)
Two quick issues with those requirements. 1. Employers won’t want to comply with the paperwork. 2. Staes don’t (and won’t) have the staff to verify work information in a timely manner. When the state falls behind innocent citizens lose benefits.
So, what can we expect to happen?
- Food pantries and other anti-hunger groups will see demand for food more than double. Remember, currently about $8 of every $10 in hunger aid comes from food stamps and school meal programs.
- Doctors, pharmacies, and other health care providers will not be paid for a significant number of those needing care.
- Several rural hospitals will close, and urban hospitals will have to dramatically raise prices to offset ‘charity care.’
That ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ isn’t an abstraction. The United States Senate – fearful of Donald Trump and the Trumpettes wrath – will accept most of what is in the House version. Despite what Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley and others say, the cuts might get shaved, but they won’t be stopped.
Rough weather is coming.
Glenn Koenen
Image sourced from Missouri DSS site visualizing outdated distribution of SNAP and TANF recipients.