Maternity Care Under ACA Repeal

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen (MN-03) voted to make maternity care optional in coverage offered with his vote for the ACHA act.

The following article by Christy M. Gamble and Jamila Taylor was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 7, 2017:

Implications for Black Women’s Maternal Health

A woman holds her newborn daughter in her hospital room at Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago, June 7, 2013. Credit:  AP/Scott Eisen

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been instrumental in providing affordable, quality health care to millions of American women. In fact, since the implementation of the ACA, about 13 million women have gained access to maternity services.1 Access to these services has been especially important for black women, who are more likely to be uninsured and experience poorer maternal health outcomes than their white counterparts. Unfortunately, racial and gender disparities in health care access persist: Black women are more likely to experience unintended pregnancies as compared to women of other races; die at a rate that is three to four times the rate of white mothers; suffer from severe maternal morbidity; and have the lowest rate of prenatal care utilization.2 Many health care experts agree that maternal death and morbidity can be avoided by ensuring that mothers have access to adequate prenatal care, skilled attendants during birth, and proper postnatal care, all of which are available through maternity care coverage.3 Continue reading “Maternity Care Under ACA Repeal”