Missouri’s Self-Directed Supports (SDS) program lets people with disabilities and their families hire caregivers and trains caregivers to address specialized care needs. SDS sometimes pays a person for being a full-time caregiver to a disabled family member. Part of Missouri Medicaid, SDS allows Missourians with disabilities to stay out of expensive institutional care and remain in their communities. Cuts proposed for next year’s state budget would reduce SDS funding. The Missouri state legislature must finalize the budget by May 2026. If these cuts remain in place, they will start next fiscal year on July 1, 2026.

Many have seen their monthly health insurance premiums increase in 2026. For people with Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans, prices have increased because enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which reduced the cost of insurance plans, expired on December 31st, 2025. People with health plans through their employer are also seeing monthly premiums increase by an average of 6.0%. Many factors, including an increase in prescription drug costs, are driving up prices.

On Friday January 16th, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from Bayer, the manufacturer of Roundup weedkiller. The appeal would block thousands of lawsuits alleging Bayer did not warn people that its weedkiller could cause cancer. The Supreme Court will consider if the EPA’s approval of Roundup without a cancer warning should protect Bayer from these lawsuits. The court will hear a case from Missouri where a jury awarded $1.25 million to a man who developed cancer after spraying Roundup on a St. Louis community garden.

New work requirements for SNAP were signed into law in July 2025, but each state is implementing them on a different timeline. In Missouri, they went into effect November 1st, 2025. States have until January 1st, 2027, to adopt the changes which include a new requirement for people between the ages of 55 and 64 to work or volunteer 80 hours per month to stay on SNAP. Previously, anyone 55+ was exempt from these requirements. Exemptions based on veteran status or homelessness were also ended. Everyone is allowed three months within three years to remain on SNAP food assistance without meeting these requirements.