Abstract
Policymakers are paying long-overdue attention to reducing high and increasing rates of deaths and severe health complications among Black people who give birth. Comprehensively addressing this challenge and the broader maternal health crisis requires making a continuum of high-quality health coverage, health care and other services accessible before, during, and after pregnancy. But the Medicaid ‘coverage gap’ – in which adults with low incomes have no pathway to affordable coverage out of reach for over 800,000 women of reproductive age. Federal policymakers should close the coverage gap in forthcoming recovery legislation so all women of reproductive age with incomes below the poverty line can get affordable coverage whether they are pregnant or not.
Authors: Judith Solomon
Publication Date: July 26, 2021