Postpartum Medicaid extension passes Mississippi House committee after years of debate

After more than three years of debate over whether Mississippi should expand Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months, a bill to do so passed the House Medicaid Committee in a matter of minutes Tuesday.

With the deadline to move bills through committees approaching, Medicaid committee chair Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, called the body's first meeting of the year, quickly promising that they would not meet again.

For the last two years, and again this session, the Senate has passed bills to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, but under opposition from House leadership, Hood's committee never voted on them.

What it took to change that, Hood said, was a letter sent Monday by Division of Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder to Hood and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. The letter both endorsed extension and assured the Republican officials that doing-so would not be the same as expanding Medicaid. Gunn then told reporters that he would not stand in the way of the extension bill, which had already passed the Senate.

The letter came one day after Gov. Tate Reeves, who oversees the division, reversed course and endorsed extending coverage.

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"I had been asking, and so had Speaker Gunn, had been asking about an opinion on postpartum coverage," Hood said. "We received a letter from Drew Snyder yesterday. He said it would be beneficial ... He thought it was extension not expansion."

When the bill was proposed by Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, she echoed some of Reeves' comments that extension is particularly necessary in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which led to abortion being almost entirely banned in Mississippi.

"This bill demonstrates that we as policy makers also recognize that our commitment to life cannot end once the baby takes his or her first breath, that we also must care for that baby and his mother outside the womb," McGee said.

One year of Medicaid coverage for new mothers has been allowed in Mississippi since 2020, when it was extended nationwide through federal COVID-19 relief. However, that expires in April, leaving many states scrambling to enact their own extensions. Mississippi and Wyoming are the only two states in the country to have enacted neither a postpartum extension nor Medicaid expansion, though both states are currently considering postpartum extension bills.

Some Democrats on the Medicaid committee questioned why it took the Dobbs decision and an election year for Reeves and Gunn to back extension. Gunn is not seeking reelection, but Reeves is likely to face Democrat Brandon Presley in November. Presley has been critical of Reeves' Medicaid positions, and the Northern District Public Service Commissioner supports full expansion of Medicaid.

"Isn't it a shame that we have to wait until the political winds turn, when somebody feels like they're not going to be able to be reelected, to do something like this," Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said. "This is a moment that we should be celebrating the lives of women who actually bring life, but yet it is a political ploy in this process. I'm supporting this legislation because it's the right thing to do, but I am appalled that the leadership of this state has waited until their backs are against the wall and they are in trouble before they decide to do the right thing by taking care of women in this state."

The bill, which already passed the Senate 41-11, now heads to the full House. If it reaches the House floor and is approved there without changes, it will head to the desk of Reeves, who has vowed to sign it. Whether it reaches the House floor will be up to Hood, who said after the hearing Tuesday that he does not yet know when that will be.

"I have no timetable. The major hurdle was getting it past the first step," Hood said.

In an interview Tuesday morning with SuperTalk Mississippi, Gunn said that the bill being allowed to reach a committee vote does not necessarily mean that it will reach the House floor.

"We've not decided to do that yet. We've decided to move the bill out of the committee and keep it alive. The deadline is today by the way, the deadline to move bills out of the committee," Gunn said. "It means it goes to the calendar of the House floor and it sits on the calendar until it's taken up."

Passage of postpartum extension would be a major victory for Senate leadership, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. Hosemann, who has been a vocal supporter of extension, is gearing up to face state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, in a Republican primary in August. McDaniel voted against extension on the Senate floor.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS moves one step closer to extending postpartum Medicaid coverage