LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas House Democratic Leader Andrew Collins called the “Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act,” announced by Governor Sarah Sanders and sponsored by Rep. Aaron Pilkington and Sen. Missy Irvin, a missed opportunity. While it moves in the right direction, integrating some proposals that have been championed by House Democrats, it does not go nearly far enough to address Arkansas’s worst-in-the-nation maternal health outcomes. It falls far short of the comprehensive plan laid out in House Democrats’ Better Arkansas Agenda to take Arkansas maternal health from worst to first.

Notably absent from the Republican proposal is expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a full year. Arkansas remains the only state that refuses to extend this coverage.

“We are at an extraordinary moment of public attention to Arkansas’s maternal health crisis, where we rank worst among all states. We’ve never had a better opportunity to take bold action to help Arkansas moms. It is mind-boggling that the Governor and legislative Republicans are squandering this chance to do the bare minimum of extending postpartum health coverage to a year,” Collins said.

Some additional actions to support maternal health that the Republican package does not include are relief from the “pink tax” on feminine products and baby feeding equipment, allowing abortion in certain circumstances including to protect the health of the mother, paid maternity leave, a child tax credit, and improving access to child care. House Democrats have filed bills to address each of these issues as part of their Better Arkansas Agenda.

The HMHBA does include versions of several of House Democrats’ proposals from their Better Arkansas Agenda, released last fall. Like House Democrats’ HB1009, the HMHBA would establish presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women, although it would stop short of ensuring defining pregnancy as a life event enabling someone to enroll in non-Medicaid insurance outside of the open enrollment period. Like House Democrats’ HB1010, the HMHBA would increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to help providers fill coverage caps, although to a lesser degree.

Many and perhaps all House Democrats will support the incremental steps to improve maternal health in the HMHBA, which could be heard in committee as soon as this week.

“A modest improvement is better than the intolerable status quo,” Collins said. “But it’s just not good enough.”