SWHR signed on to a letter urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) to include the Helping MOMS Act in forthcoming COVID-19 response legislation.
More than 700 mothers die from pregnancy-related causes each year and an additional 50,000 women experience a severe maternal morbidity. These burdens fall disproportionately on Black and Native women. Currently, pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage ends just 60 days after giving birth.
The Helping MOMS Act would incentivize state Medicaid programs to expand this to a full year of continuous Medicaid coverage after the end of pregnancy. Extending postpartum Medicaid is fundamental to lowering the nation’s unacceptably high maternal mortality rate, particularly with the added risks to pregnancy introduced by COVID-19. SWHR is one of 42 organizations supporting this letter led by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Read The Letter
