Dive Brief:
- On Tuesday, New York became the 35th state to extend healthcare coverage after pregnancy, allowing up to 26,000 additional New Yorkers to be eligible to receive Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits for a full year following pregnancy. Previously, people were guaranteed 60 days of coverage postpartum.
- The expansion was made possible by the 2021 American Rescue Plan and Consolidated Appropriations Act signed into law earlier this year, which allowed states the option to extend Medicaid coverage.
- In a statement, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra called New York’s decision to extend care a “significant milestone for improving maternal health,” that could help reduce negative health events and disparities in maternal health outcomes.
Dive Insight:
New York is the latest state to be approved for extended postpartum coverage under the Consolidated Appropriations Act. If all states expanded postpartum coverage, as many as 720,000 Americans would be covered under Medicaid and CHIP coverage for a year after pregnancy, according to the CMS.
CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement that the Biden administration will continue attempting to expand postpartum coverage to all 50 states and every U.S. territory. Currently, Medicaid covers more than 40% of births nationwide.
While there have been some notable holdouts to extending coverage — including Idaho and Texas — most states have proposed or passed extended postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Maggie Clark, program director for Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, told Kaiser Health News that support for extending care cuts across the aisle as politicians recognize America’s worsening maternal health crisis.
Pregnancy-related deaths have increased in the U.S. in recent years, with 1,205 women in 2021 dying of maternal causes, compared with 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019, according to an analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2017 and 2019, 30% of those deaths occurred when coverage would have lapsed for Medicaid enrollees, between 43 to 365 days post-delivery.
