WHEREAS,
under federal law, all states must provide Medicaid coverage for pregnancy-related services to pregnant women with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level (“FPL”) through the end of the month in which a 60-day period ends following the termination of the pregnancy; and
WHEREAS, Delaware has expanded Medicaid coverage which provides full Medicaid coverage for pregnant women with incomes at or below 212% of the FPL; and
WHEREAS, Medicaid was the principal source of payment for 44.4% of deliveries in Delaware in 2018 but approximately 1/3 of Medicaid-covered women who delivered a baby lost their Medicaid coverage in the 12 months following the birth; and
WHEREAS, insurance is a critical factor in determining women’s access to affordable postpartum care
; and
WHEREAS, in 2012, the most recent year for which surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) is available, there were approximately 16 pregnancy-related deaths per every 100,000 live births in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the CDC surveillance data indicates that the rate of pregnancy-related deaths varies by race, ethnicity, and age, with the highest mortality rate evidenced among black women, for whom the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is consistently 3 to 4 times higher than for white women; and
WHEREAS, in May 2019, the CDC released a new maternal mortality report that found that 1 in 3 pregnancy-related deaths occurred between 1 week through 1 year after delivery; and
WHEREAS, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association have recently called for interventions to reduce pregnancy-related deaths and have identified the expansion of insurance eligibility under Medicaid through the first year postpartum as a key strategy for reducing preventable maternal morbidity and mortality; and
WHEREAS, the Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium recently identified extended Medicaid postpartum coverage as a top priority of the Social Determinants of Health Workgroup.
NOW, THEREFORE:
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the 150
th
General Assembly of the State of Delaware, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the State should explore strategies to reduce preventable maternal mortality and to close the disparity in the maternal mortality rate among black women and women of other races; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance study the extension Medicaid coverage through the first year postpartum, a key strategy to reduce preventable maternal mortality, and provide a report summarizing this study to
the President Pro Tempore of the Senate
,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
the Chair of the Senate Health & Social Services Committee, the Chair of the House Health & Human Development Committee
, the Governor, the Director and the Librarian of the Division of Research of Legislative Council, and the Delaware Public Archives
by April 1, 2020.
