Women from all throughout Missouri are urging lawmakers to approve an extension of Medicaid postpartum coverage for new mothers.
According to Casey Hanson, director of outreach for Kids Win Missouri, “the federal government said states could change their Medicaid states plan to extend coverage to parents on Medicaid to 12 months” when it approved the American Rescue Plan Act.
Elaine Gannon, a Republican state senator, pre-filed the moms’ proposal on Thursday.
“They’d be able to receive that complete health care over that period, whether they’re suffering postpartum depression concerns or encountering some other health issue based on all the changes that have transpired to their body,” Gannon said.
Moms’ Medicaid coverage is currently only good for two months. According to the previously proposed law, mothers are entitled to a postpartum break of a full year.
Regarding the states’ rates of maternal death, Tracy Russell, executive director of Nurture KC, remarked, “We rank in the lowest fourth.”
According to Russell, Missouri is somewhere between 40th and 45th in the nation for that.
There is a narrative within a story here, according to her, because the difference is glaring when it comes to the effects on Black women in particular.
According to the most recent statistics from Missouri, Black women are dying three times more frequently than their white counterparts, according to Russell. Similar bills were introduced last year, but they were rejected by the Senate.
Whether a measure like this will become law in 2023 is unknown.
In recent years, Missouri has already adopted extended Medicaid, according to Russell. When compared to other amounts of money, “this is a relatively little amount of money”
On both sides of the state line, in the urban center, Nurture KC works with new mothers.
Russell said, “If you look at Kansas’s actions a year ago, Kansas passed this. “I believe that more of these midwestern states are beginning to move in this manner.”
Republican Caleb Rowden, who will be the next president pro tem of the Missouri Senate, declined to comment on Friday if he believes this initiative will succeed.
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