Current:Home > MarketsMississippi will allow quicker Medicaid coverage during pregnancy to try to help women and babies -FinTechWorld
Mississippi will allow quicker Medicaid coverage during pregnancy to try to help women and babies
View
Date:2025-04-12 17:10:52
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A new Mississippi law will allow earlier Medicaid coverage for pregnant women in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of infant mortality.
The “presumptive eligility” legislation signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will become law July 1. It says Medicaid will pay for a pregnant woman’s outpatient medical care for up to 60 days while her application for the government-funded insurance program is being considered.
Processing Medicaid applications can take weeks, and physicians say early prenatal care is vital.
The advocacy group Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable praised the new law, which passed the Republican-controlled Legislature with bipartisan support.
“This represents a significant step forward in the effort to create better health for women and their families,” the group said in a statement.
Black infants in Mississippi were nearly twice as likely as white ones to die over the past decade, according to a report unveiled Jan. 18 by the state Department of Health.
Presumptive Medicaid eligibility during pregnancy would be based on questions about income, asked by health care providers such county health department workers. If a woman’s Medicaid application is ultimately rejected because her income is too high, Medicaid would still pay for services provided during the time of presumptive eligibility.
House Medicaid Committee Chairwoman Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg, said the total cost to the Medicaid program will be just under $600,000 a year.
About 41% of births in the U.S. and 57% in Mississippi were financed by Medicaid in 2022, according to the health policy research group KFF. Only Louisiana had a larger share of births covered by Medicaid that year, at 61%.
In Mississippi, Medicaid coverage for pregnant women 19 and older is based on income. A woman in that age category who has no dependents can receive up to about $29,000 and qualify for Medicaid during pregnancy. One with three dependents can get as much as $59,700 and qualify.
Mississippi Medicaid coverage is available to all income levels for those who are pregnant and younger than 19.
In 2023, Mississippi extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year, with Reeves saying the change was part of a “new pro-life agenda” to help mothers in a state where abortion is tightly restricted.
Mississippi is among 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid eligibility to include people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $20,120 annually for a single person. Expansion is allowed under the federal health overhaul that then-President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
The Mississippi House recently voted for Medicaid expansion. The state Senate has not voted on an expansion proposal this year, and Reeves has said for years that he opposes adding people to government programs.
veryGood! (278)
Related
- North Carolina justices rule for restaurants in COVID
- Do not use: FDA recalls some tests for pregnancy, ovulation and urinary tract infections
- Illinois National Guard member dies of heat injuries at Camp Shelby in Mississippi
- 3 Maryland vacationers killed and 3 more hurt in house fire in North Carolina’s Outer Banks
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Just how hot was July? Hotter than anything on record
- 'Last Voyage of the Demeter': Biggest changes from the Dracula book to movie (Spoilers!)
- The No-Brainer Retirement Account I'd Choose Way Before a 401(k)
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- A throng of interfaith leaders to focus on combating authoritarianism at global gathering in Chicago
Ranking
- Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
- Hawaii mourns the dead in ferocious wildfires while officials warn the full toll is not yet known
- Little League World Series 2023 games, dates, schedule, bracket
- Miss Universe severs ties with Indonesia after contestants allege they were told to strip
- Paige Bueckers vs. Hannah Hidalgo highlights women's basketball games to watch
- Morgan Wallen shaves his head, shocking fans: 'I didn't like my long hair anymore'
- Chicago mayor names the police department’s counterterrorism head as new police superintendent
- Aidan O’Connell impresses for Raiders, while questions linger for 49ers backup quarterbacks
Recommendation
Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
Video shows ‘mob’ steal up to $100,000 worth of items at Nordstrom in Los Angeles: Police
Why lasers could help make the electric grid greener
'Back at square one': Research shows the folly of cashing out of 401(k) when leaving a job
Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
3 found dead in car in Indianapolis school parking lot
Pair of shootings in Chicago leave 1 dead, 7 wounded
'We in the Hall of Fame, dawg': Dwyane Wade wraps up sensational night for Class of 2023