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Arkansas ranks near the bottom in terms of maternal health, including maternal death rates, yet the state continues to resist implementing the best strategy — the “one weird trick” — for improving mothers’ health.
That best strategy? “Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months with automatic continuous enrollment would have the greatest impact.”
At least, that’s the opinion of Dr. Nirvana Manning, chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and the subject of this week’s Executive Q&A. We figure Manning should have a pretty good grasp of the issue, though she’s hardly the only maternal health expert to advocate for the action.
Arkansas is the only state that hasn’t moved to take advantage of postpartum Medicaid coverage, a program funded mostly by the federal government that extends health insurance coverage to women from 60 days after they give birth to a year.
Yet Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, while she has worked to improve maternal health, and the Arkansas Legislature have rejected what is, to us, this common sense approach. The governor has called the program “duplicative.”
Experts in maternal health like Manning disagree. So do we.
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