The latest local news, weather and high school sports in and around Columbia and Jefferson City

A startling number of Americans are living without health insurance and a growing number in Missouri are living day to day without it.

A Census Bureau Report said more than 850,000 Missourians have no health coverage, almost twice as many as a decade ago.

The report also said one in six Missourians are living in poverty, more than 15% of the state's population and slightly higher than the national average.

The report also found a growing number of workers lost employer-sponsored coverage during the recession.

"It's very important that we ensure that when our policymakers both in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C., address the budget challenges that we face, that they use a balanced approach,” director for health and budget policy for the Missouri Budget Project Ruth Ehresman said.  “We absolutely cannot cut these critical services, but we have to also include increasing revenue as part of our solution."

The report also found income dropped by almost eight-thousand dollars during the past decade.

Missouri ranks 43rd in median income compared with other states.

(Missouri News Service contributed to this story.)