Bill aims to expand help for new moms
Rep. Kamia Brown champions effort to extend benefit to year
TALLAHASSEE — Women who get Medicaid coverage during their pregnancy in Florida lose it two months after delivery if they don’t otherwise qualify for Medicaid. Ocoee Democratic Rep. Kamia Brown has sought to change that since taking office in 2016, and this year she’s gained a powerful ally: House Speaker Chris Sprowls.
“If it wasn’t for the hard work that (Rep. Brown) has done to pave the path for this the work that we have been able to do here today … would not be possible,” said Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, during a March 23 press conference to unveil the plan.
Sprowls, along with Brown and a bipartisan group of House members, unveiled a plan to extend Medicaid coverage for pregnant women by 10 months, from the current two months after a child is born to a full year of coverage.
Brown had filed a bill,
HB 645, to extend the coverage but the measure hasn’t had a hearing. Instead, Sprowls has included the provision in the House’s budget, which is scheduled to be voted off the floor on Thursday.
“It is my hope that today’s strong step forward from the house is one of many steps to the opportunity for all mamas to live and be mamas,” Brown said at the press conference.
She pointed to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics showing an increase in pregnancy-related mortality rates, from 7 per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 17.3 in 2017. A CDC study of pregnancy-related deaths from 2008-2017 showed 23% came after 45 days following birth. Brown also emphasized the racial disparity in the deaths, as Black pregnant women and new moms were three times more at risk of dying than white women.
“To be perfectly clear: extending this coverage will save lives,” Brown said.
The plan would affect 97,600 women in Florida each year, and cost $240 million, with $92 million coming from the state and the rest paid by the federal government, according to data from Sprowls’ office.
Sprowls specified that the plan was an “extension” of Medicaid coverage to pregnant women, who are already qualified for coverage, as different from an “expansion” of Medicaid as Democrats have called for, which would offer coverage to a new population of 800,000 who make too much under current law to qualify for the federal program.
Although the latest COVID-19 relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden would offer new federal money to pay for expansion, Sprowls, Senate President Wilton Simpson and Gov. Ron DeSantis have no plans to take the offer.
The extension of coverage for new moms, however, comes in a budget that also includes a 2% cut to Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes, about $80.4 million. The cut led to criticism from the nursing home industry, which has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.
“While we recognize that the Legislature must make tough decisions this session, we don’t believe the budget should be balanced on the backs of nursing center residents and their frontline caregivers, who have already sacrificed so much over this past year,” said Emmett Reed, CEO of the Florida Health Care Association, a trade group representing 700 nursing homes and long term care facilities.
Reed added that the proposed cut amounts to $5 per patient per day, or about $125,000 per facility.
Those cuts and the Medicaid extension, however, are not a done deal. After passing the budget, the House will enter negotiations with the Senate over the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Senate’s proposed budget doesn’t include the extension, but Simpson has said he’s open to the idea, and Sprowls said he’s committed to the proposal.
“This is a step that we must take to help support an important and vulnerable population, our pregnant moms and their babies during and after their pregnancy,” Sprowls said.
Florida’s legislative session is scheduled to end April 30.