Federal Bill Includes Longer Medicaid Coverage for New Mothers and Children
By Joey Berlin

A federal budget bill under negotiation in Congress would expand Medicaid coverage for both new mothers and children, and the Texas Medical Association has signed onto a letter urging preservation of those provisions.

Texas Care For Children, TMA, and dozens of other medical and nonmedical organizations told key congressional lawmakers to support a pair of “critical but lower-profile” pieces of the federal Build Back Better Act, a broad spending package.

Provisions that are part of the negotiations would allow mothers with Medicaid coverage to maintain that coverage for 12 months after their pregnancy ends, and allow children to remain enrolled in their Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for 12 continuous months.

During this year’s regular session of the Texas Legislature, TMA pushed for a 12-month postpartum coverage bill for Texas mothers, but ultimately supported compromise legislation allowing six months of coverage – still a four-month improvement over the status quo. On children’s Medicaid, instead of 12 months of continuous eligibility, the House of Medicine helped negotiate another compromise: six months of continuous coverage, with an electronic income check that would then allow eligible children to retain coverage for another six months.

Reiterating TMA’s advocacy for extended coverage, the letter encouraged the entire Texas delegation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to do their part to ensure the final bill maintains the two related federal pieces.

“The provision to support healthy moms would have a significant positive impact in Texas, where approximately one-quarter of women of childbearing age were uninsured prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the organizations wrote. They noted the work of the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, which previously included a full year of comprehensive health coverage for moms after pregnancy as its top recommendation in a 2020 report to Gov. Greg Abbott. The committee also warned that Black mothers in Texas are at a much higher risk of maternal mortality than other mothers. TMA’s letter said that’s one reason a full year of postpartum coverage is a key step in addressing racial disparities both in Texas and nationally.

“Greater access to health coverage would help prevent maternal deaths - and maternal mortality is just the tip of the iceberg,” the letter added. “Many more Texas moms face medical issues and complications in the year following pregnancy, such as postpartum depression, cardiac arrest, infection, and extreme blood loss or hemorrhage. These issues often lead to extra hospital stays, create long-term health problems for mothers, affect infants and toddlers during the critical years of early brain development, and generate higher costs to Medicaid and the state.”

The written comments also told lawmakers that Texas would be among the biggest beneficiaries from expanding children’s health insurance to 12 continuous months.

“Texas has the nation’s highest uninsured rate for children. In fact, Texas was responsible for one-third of the total increase in the number of children who lost health insurance from 2016 to 2019 in the United States,” the letter said. “While children of all racial/ethnic backgrounds have high uninsured rates in Texas, Hispanic children in particular are disproportionately uninsured - one of the reasons that continuous health coverage for children must be part of a health equity agenda.”

The letter to congressional leadership said by offering children 12 months of continuous coverage, “Congress will ensure more children get the health care they need and are more likely to succeed in school, graduate from high school and attend college, earn higher wages, and grow up into healthy adults.”

Along with Texas Care for Children and TMA, the many signatories on the letter included the Texas Hospital Association, the Texas Pediatric Society, the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, the Texas Association of Community Health Plans, Texas Parent to Parent, and the Texas AFL-CIO.

Last Updated On

October 27, 2021

Originally Published On

October 27, 2021

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