At least eight states this year have decided to seek federal approval to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, leaving just a handful that have opted not to guarantee at least a year of health care for women during that critical period after pregnancy.
The new states on the list include Montana, where lawmakers in the recently ended legislative session voted for a state budget that contains $6.2 million in state and federal funds over the next two years to extend continuous postpartum eligibility from 60 days to 12 months after pregnancy. That would ensure coverage for between 1,000 and 2,000 additional parents in the state each year, according to federal and state estimates.
More than 4 in 10 births in the U.S. are covered under Medicaid. But the default postpartum coverage period is 60 days. That amendment is pending with CMS, which has approved 12-month postpartum coverage plans for 33 states and Washington, D.C., as of May 30. New York and Vermont also have applications pending, and the states with newly passed measures are expected to submit theirs soon. It typically takes a couple of months for CMS to approve state Medicaid plan amendments to extend postpartum coverage, Clark said.
Support in statehouses for such measures has been mostly bipartisan at a time of polarizing debate over reproductive health policy since the U.S. Supreme Court overturnedAbortion has crept into the debate in some instances. The Texas House, for example, passed a 12-month postpartum coverage bill in April, only to see the measure amended in the state Senate to bar coverage for women after an abortion.
Montana’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, included the postpartum coverage extension in his original budget proposal last fall. But a moment of confusion occurred on May 22 when Gianforte vetoed a bill that would have directed how certain provisions of the state budget are implemented, including the postpartum coverage extension. State health officials and the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep.
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