Arkansas house committee advances bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — A bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage in Arkansas from 60 days to one year has been passed out of a house committee.

The proposed extension comes despite opposition from Governor Sanders, who signed the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act in February, overhauling Medicaid coverage for pregnant women and new mothers.

The governor has argued that a 12-month postpartum coverage would be duplicative, and that the state should focus on promoting resources already available to mothers.

"My hope is that this will help reverse course. That, along with all the good work we did with Health Moms Healthy Babies," says Representative, Aaron Pilkington.

Pilkington is sponsoring legislation to extend Medicaid coverage for post-partum mothers from 60 days to one year.

He says new data from the Arkansas Department of Human Services shows nearly 40% of new mothers in Arkansas lose their Medicaid coverage after the 60-day postpartum period.

"These are people who are making $20,000 a year, it's not a lot of money," says Pilkington. "These are people who are working minimum wage, part -time, and so for them to go and try to buy a plan on the marketplace is very expensive, when you've got new expenses, as with a baby, then trying to afford this plan on top of that just is not doable."

Pilkington co-sponsored the Healthy Moms Healthy Babies Act that was signed into law by Governor Sanders in February, which expanded coverage and reimbursements, but not for one year postpartum.

His new proposal would seek funding from the federal Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP, which would need to be approved by the federal government.

"After those 60 days when they lose coverage, they're not going to the doctor. They're maybe going when they end up in the ER, or maybe not even at all, maybe there's an issue and they just unfortunately pass before we're able to get to them. So the hope is that by making sure we extend this coverage over 12 months we can get those women, get them taken care of, and make sure that they are healthy moms and healthy babies," says Pilkington.

The bill will be moving to the house floor next Monday, after members return from spring break.