House OKs Medicaid extension for new moms

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, March 11, 2020

ATLANTA — The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers in a step to lower Georgia’s high maternal mortality rate.

The bill passed in a 164-1 vote and would extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers from the current two months to six months post-pregnancy.

House Speaker David Ralston and Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, chair of the House Health and Human Services committee, introduced the measure last week which moved quickly through committees to a floor vote.

Efforts to extend the coverage started months ago, when a bipartisan House study committee took up the issue and explored ways to reduce the state’s high maternal mortality rates.

According to data from the Department of Public Health, Georgia had a rate of 67 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births from 2012-15. Two-thirds of those deaths were deemed preventable. Black women are 2.7 times more likely to die during childbirth than white women.

Of those deaths, 66% were moms covered by Medicaid.

The additional six months will take almost $20 million to fund, which was included in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget passed Tuesday.

The bill would also designate about $250,000 a year in funding for lactation care for new mothers.

New moms in Georgia who earn less than double the federal poverty rate qualify for two months of coverage after pregnancy. But researchers and health care advocates have long told lawmakers that women often face barriers to postpartum visits such as limited transportation, child care or lack of obstetricians in their areas.

Rural mothers are at particularly high risk for maternal deaths, according to researchers at the Mercer University School of Medicine’s Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities. Rural African American women have 30% higher maternal mortality than urban African American women while rural white women have 50% higher risk than urban white women.

But with rural labor and delivery units few and far between, mothers often miss post-natal visits for a variety of reasons.

Since October, Cooper said she has been lobbying for at least the six-month extension, if not a year — which advocates and lawmakers agree would have been more ideal.

But under tough budget conditions, a year was not feasible this session.

Elise Blasingame, executive director of the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia, said in a statement to CNHI she and her organization are grateful for House leaders and Gov. Brian Kemp for recognizing the “collective call for postpartum Medicaid extension” coming from health advocates and women’s health professionals — but data supports a year extension would best address maternal mortality and morbidity.

“We view this House vote as a critical step toward making this a reality for the thousands of mothers who utilize Pregnancy Medicaid,” Blasingame said. “Extending Pregnancy Medicaid to one year postpartum was the number one recommendation of the Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee and the House Study Committee for a reason. This is our best next step in stemming the high number of mortality and morbidity cases in Georgia which the majority of which are taking place in the postpartum period.”

Rep. Mable Thomas, D-Atlanta, who has long been involved in tackling maternal mortality and morbidity in Georgia, said on the House floor Tuesday the vote was a historic moment that couldn’t go unacknowledged — but lawmakers still have work to do.

“I am not giving up on a year, but it will make an impact, the six months,” Thomas said. “It will make a difference in the lives of women in Georgia.”


A new study published in the journal Women’s Health Issue written by Erica Eliason, a doctoral student researcher at Columbia University’s Columbia Population Research Center suggests full Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Health Care Act may be linked to lower numbers of maternal deaths.

From 2006-17, states that had expanded Medicaid showed significantly lower rates of maternal mortality by about seven deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the study.

Health care advocates have long criticized Georgia’s refusal to fully expand Medicaid, arguing it would cost significantly less to cover more Georgians than Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed Medicaid waivers.

Federal action taken by Georgia delegates

The same day the House voted to extend Medicaid coverage to six months, the Black Maternal Health Congressional Caucus — which includes five members of Georgia’s federal delegation — introduced a legislation package aimed at reducing the nation’s high rates of maternal mortality.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath called the legislation “monumental” and said it is “drastically needed at this time.”

McBath introduced the Social Determinant for Moms Act that aims at reducing social and economic inequities in areas such as child care, housing, nutrition and transportation.

“I know from my own experience with a high-risk pregnancy with my own son, Jordan, had it not been for the excellent care that I received from a physician who was uniquely qualified to care for me, I would not be standing here today,” McBath said during a press conference. “I truly recognize there are women all around the country, especially women of color that do not have access to the same type of good care that I had and their outcomes are drastically different.”

Other legislation in the package honors Kira Dixon Johnson, a Georgia mother who lost her life in 2016. Her husband, Charles Johnson IV, has been leading efforts in Washington, D.C., to curb maternal deaths.

Kira Dixon Johnson spoke five languages and was the daughter-in-law of well-known Glenda Hatchett, star of the reality court TV show “Judge Hatchett.”


Advocates often point to her story — and that of Shalon Irving, a Center for Disease Control epidemiologist and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, died from complications during child birth in 2017 — as examples that no matter your social or economic status, black mothers always face increased risk of dying during childbirth.