JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri officials are citing an improved economy as one of several factors that led to close to 90,000 children being dropped from the state's Medicaid health insurance program in the past year, although some lawmakers are still unsatisfied with the explanation.

Acting Social Services Director Jennifer Tidball sought to explain why those children and 23,000 adults have lost coverage since July 2018 in a letter Monday to Republican state House Speaker Elijah Haahr.

In the letter , provided to The Associated Press by the Department of Social Services, Tidball in part...