Red states that banned abortion consider expanding Medicaid for mothers

Molly Hennessy-Fiske, (c) 2022, The Washington Post

Fri, December 30, 2022 at 11:33 AM AKST

Makayla Robinson is seven months pregnant, unemployed, living at a Dallas maternity home and relying on health care from Medicaid that could end next spring.

In Texas, Medicaid covers new mothers for two months after they give birth. For now, Robinson, 22, and others have extended coverage because of the federal pandemic public health emergency that the Biden administration has thus far approved through April.

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Robinson worried what would happen after that.

"I wouldn't be able to go to the doctor," she said. " … I'm having financial problems. The Medicaid really helped."

The limits on Robinson's Medicaid coverage after the emergency insurance lapses hinge on Texas's long-standing rejection of the Affordable Care Act, which included provisions for expanded Medicaid. And it has set up an uncomfortable dynamic: While Texas and nearly a dozen other red states have resisted expanding Medicaid for those who are pregnant, many of them have also restricted access to abortion, leading to more new mothers needing coverage.

Now Republican lawmakers in Texas, Mississippi, Wyoming and other red states face a choice: focus exclusively on further restricting abortion, or join antiabortion groups and Democrats lobbying to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage.

"There's a discussion among Republicans and those who are anti-choice about what should we be doing to support mothers?" said Usha Ranji, associate director for women's health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Some national antiabortion groups that support postpartum Medicaid expansion have proposed other legislation to expand funding for those who are pregnant, in the wake of new state curbs on abortion after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision erased the protections of Roe v. Wade.

"On our side, there is an awareness and a very strong move after Roe's overturn toward caring for women," said Steve Aden, general counsel and chief legal officer for Washington-based Americans United for Life. "I think the whole movement is looking for ways to implement policy on the state level to support the increasing number of women who will have children."