We are pleased about the new Healthy Texas Women-Plus program that HHSC announced a few weeks earlier and grateful to Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, HHSC staff, and others for their hard work on this project.

We are also committed to working with legislators, HHSC, and other stakeholders to make sure the new program is a success. Recruiting enough providers to participate will be one of the primary challenges.

Additionally, we want to address a point of confusion about the new program.

Even after the new Healthy Texas Women-Plus program is implemented, it will still be critically important for the Legislature to extend comprehensive Medicaid health insurance for new mothers from the current two months of coverage after childbirth to a full year (or to use Medicaid expansion funding to cover low-income adults).

Many of the medically necessary services that new moms need — especially those who experience postpartum complications — are covered by Medicaid but not Healthy Texas Women-Plus. Of course, Texas is one of the few remaining states where moms below the poverty line with jobs that don't offer health insurance — including child care educators, grocery store cashiers, and others — typically are not eligible for Medicaid except while they are pregnant.

Services that are covered by Medicaid but not Healthy Texas Women-Plus include medical and surgical acute care services, treatment for cancer, physical and occupational therapy, and many prescription drugs.

We have been pleased to see the growing level of support for extending moms' postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year. As you know, the Texas House passed HB 744 late in the 2019 legislative session to implement the policy, although the bill ran out of time in the Senate. The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee has recommended the policy change. Texans in Congress — including Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Rep. Michael Burgess — have co-sponsored legislation to support the policy. In fact, as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas has temporarily paused the state’s policy of terminating new moms’ Medicaid insurance two months after childbirth.

We look forward to working with state leaders and our partners on this critical goal during the upcoming legislative session.