Alabama lawmakers pass legislation that could give pregnant women more access to health care
The 'presumptive eligibility' legislation states that Medicaid will pay for a pregnant woman's outpatient medical care for up to 60 days while an application for the government-funded insurance program is being considered.
The bill will now go to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey 's desk for her signature.
Many Republican legislators endorsed the bill as 'pro-life." Democratic lawmakers said that it was essential for addressing Alabama's delivery health outcomes that lag behind the rest of the country.
Other states have adopted a similar strategy for addressing some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates nationwide. Legislators in Mississippi and Arkansas have passed laws that would offer similar coverage to expectant mothers.
One study found Alabama had a maternal mortality rate of 64.63 deaths per 100,000 births between 2018 and 2021, nearly double the national rate of 34.09 per 100,000 births. That jumps to 100.07 deaths for Black women in the state.
Hospital closures in rural parts of the state have left many women without access to prenatal care. Last year, nearly 1 in 5 pregnant Alabama women didn't receive prenatal care until after five months of pregnancy, or otherwise received less than 50% of the appropriate number of the recommended visits throughout her pregnancy, according to The March of Dimes.
That is in part because one in six women of childbearing age fall within the coverage gap, making too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance, according to Alabama Arise, an advocacy group for low-income families.
Alabama is among 10 states nationwide that have not expanded Medicaid, which means many low-income women are only eligible for Medicaid once they become pregnant.
A pregnant woman in Alabama with no dependents can qualify for Medicaid if she makes $21,996 or less, or up to $37,704 if she is part of a household of three.
Medicaid was used to pay for 45% of all births in Alabama in 2023, according to the most recent report published by the Alabama Department of Public Health. More than half of all infant deaths were to mothers who used Medicaid.
The Alabama bill would increase Medicaid spending statewide by about $1 million annually over the course of three years, with about two-thirds coming from the federal government.
Another bill that advanced in March seeks to expand access to medical care for expectant mothers by allowing midwives to provide care outside of hospitals in freestanding birth centers. But recent amendments to the legislation prohibits midwifes from performing many standard medical screenings for newborns that are necessary to detect genetic disorders.
The Alabama Midwives Alliance said that the legislation 'started as a good bill' in a video posted on Facebook in April, but added that the amendments 'take it in the wrong direction.'
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Safiyah Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Country artist Morgan Wallen is one of the biggest music stars in the world for similar reasons. Other studios are embracing religious stories as a way to connect with more conservative viewers, while the genre has the added benefit of being relatively cheap to make but a cash cow. The changing tastes of Hollywood can perhaps be best summed up with how two Trump-adjacent projects have fared in the past couple of years. The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan's unflattering Trump biopic, struggled to get a distributor last year, but Amazon has spent tens of millions of dollars on a documentary about Melania, the first lady. Harrison Ford, the veteran Indiana Jones star, told Variety last month that this vibe shift was inevitable. 'The pendulum doth swing in both directions, and it's on a healthy swing to the right at the moment. And, as nature dictates, it will swing back.' Lest we forget that Ronald Reagan, the president who originally coined the 'Make America Great Again' slogan, was a Hollywood star who served as leader of the Screen Actors Guild for almost as long as he was in the White House. For Sweeney, it appears unlikely that her apparent outing as a Republican will do much, if any, damage to her career or cost her industry friends. Her first film set to be released next year is directed by her Euphoria co-star Colman Domingo, who is gay and black, in which she stars as actress and artist Kim Novak. Appropriately enough, it is called Scandalous!
