Washington (CNN) Two Democratic lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would provide sweeping changes to Medicaid, which covers nearly half of all births in America, in order to improve maternal health outcomes and lower mortality rates among new mothers, particularly African-American women.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced on Tuesday the Maximizing Outcomes for Moms through Medicaid Improvement and Enhancement of Services -- or MOMMIES -- Act in the Senate, while Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced the same bill, titled the Healthy MOMMIES Act, in the House on Wednesday.
The legislation, which the lawmakers touted as "one of the most far-reaching proposals ever introduced in Congress to address maternal health," comes as politicians and health care groups look for ways to reduce the maternal mortality rate among African-American women, which is three or four times higher than it is for white women. The Senate bill could also benefit Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate, as he looks to gain support among African-American and women voters.
The bill could find support in the Democrat-controlled House, but will find a harder path in the Republican-led Senate unless there's a massive bipartisan groundswell of support.
Among other things, the MOMMIES Act would increase the Medicaid coverage window for new mothers from two months to a full year after they give birth; create a "Maternity Care Home demonstration project" in more than a dozen states to examine the effectiveness of the model, which shows "great promise in improving maternal health outcomes, as they are based on a model of care that is patient-centered, coordinated, and comprehensive"; and modify the "Affordable Care Act's primary care bump to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries have access to primary care providers, including women's health providers."
The bill aims to specifically address the health disparity between African-American and white mothers by making sure "all pregnant and postpartum women have full Medicaid coverage, rather than coverage that can be limited to pregnancy-related services."
Additionally, the bill would increase access to doulas, described by Booker's office as "support personnel who provide pregnant women with emotional, physical, and informational support." The care doulas provide has helped improve health outcomes for both mothers and infants, especially among women of color, according to the office.
The legislation does not address how much the plan would cost, and the Congressional Budget Office hasn't released an estimate.
The introduction of the Senate bill on Tuesday coincided with the release of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on maternal health that said from 2011 to 2015, there were a total of 3,410 pregnancy-related deaths in the US, consistent with known rates of about 700 deaths per year. The report said nearly 31% of deaths between 2011 and 2017 that the CDC examined happened during pregnancy, 36% happened the day of delivery or the week after, and 33% happened one week to one year after delivery. The majority of the deaths are preventable, according to the report.
"We live in a nation that spends more than any other country on health care, yet we still have the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths of any country in the developed world," Booker said in a statement. "And black women are nearly four times as likely to die from complications related to pregnancy than white women -- in New Jersey, they are five times as likely."
He added that the bill's proposed changes "can begin to stem the rising tide of maternal mortality and close the egregious racial gaps that exist in maternal and infant health outcomes."
Pressley, a founding member of the House's Black Maternal Health Caucus, said in a statement that the bill promotes "a community-based, holistic approach to maternal care that recognizes current disparities in healthcare and critical environmental factors impacting communities."
"Maternal justice is about ensuring that every mom-to-be is listened to and treated with dignity and respect during and after childbirth," she said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday praised the newly created caucus and said maternal health needs to be a priority for lawmakers.
"It's so remarkable in this country that we would have this, and it disproportionately affects women of color," Pelosi said. "It's outrageous that women of color die from pregnancy related complications at three times higher than white women."
Booker, who first introduced the MOMMIES Act in the Senate last fall, is not the only Democratic candidate focusing on the issue.
Last month, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a crowd of supporters in Houston that medical providers should be rewarded with "bonus" funds for reducing the African American mortality rate. If they don't, she said, "then they're going to have money taken away from them."
And California Sen. Kamala Harris sought to raise awareness about the issue last month, introducing a Senate resolution that would designate April 11 through 17 as "Black Maternal Health Week." She also introduced a bill last year to tackle the issue, saying in a statement, "Health equity for Black women can only happen if we recognize and address persistent biases in our health system."
Both Harris and Warren, as well as New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another 2020 hopeful, are co-sponsors of Booker's bill.