ATLANTA — A new bill passed by the Georgia Senate earlier this month might allow new mothers to receive health coverage through Medicaid for up to a year after giving birth.
Bill SB 338 raises the coverage up from the current 6-month window that new mothers currently have. The last time coverage was expanded was 11 months ago by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Before coverage was raised to six months, postpartum coverage was offered for 60 days in Georgia.
Currently, the bill is before the state House of Representatives. Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed budget for next year sets aside a little more than $28 million for the expansion.
This possible expansion is noteworthy since Medicaid covers almost half of births in the U.S. according to The Kaiser Family Foundation.
These expansions are part of Georgia's effort to address the maternal healthcare crisis in Georgia. They are part of an even bigger agenda to improve coverage and to help address racial disparities in maternal health in the U.S.
As of now The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is providing states with the option of extending Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months via a state plan amendment (SPA).
A USA Today investigation published in 2018 showed that Georgia had the second-highest maternal mortality rates of all states in the U.S., with 48.4 deaths per 100,000 births compared to the national rate of 17.4 per 100,000 live births.
11Alive's medical expert, Dr. Sujatha Reddy, said that this expansion would help new moms.
"Things like high blood pressure, heart disease, things like that obviously can persist, are often a cause of postpartum-related deaths, so having coverage will hopefully help these women get healthcare that they might not have access to," she said.
The expansion of Medicaid would impact the number of pregnancy-related deaths according to Dr. Reddy.
Pregnancy-related deaths are those that occur during or within one year of pregnancy. This can be from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy.