Last year, the Texas House passed HB 133 to provide 12 months of health coverage for new moms after childbirth, as recommended by the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee and 66 Texas organizations.
The Senate reduced the bill to six months, and the Governor signed the bill. The bill has not been implemented because it requires a Medicaid waiver to obtain federal funds, always a slower and uncertain option. As a result, when Texas restarts Medicaid disenrollments at the end of the federal Public Health Emergency, Texas moms will once again be removed from health coverage when their baby turns two months old.
We are urging the Legislature to finish the job and pass the 12-month maternal coverage option now available to states through a simple Medicaid State Plan Amendment (SPA). Since the federal government made this option easier, half of all states — including other southern states like Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina — have either passed or implemented this option.
In the meantime, we are also supporting the state's request for a waiver to implement the six-month option.
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