Everyone, happy or upset, is talking about healthcare reform this week. I'll stick to my neck of the woods to tell you a bit about what it will mean when it comes to giving birth. The MAMA Campaign sums up that the following:
- MAMA Campaign's "partial victory:" Senator Cantwell's provision that will have the effect of requiring Medicaid reimbursement for licensed CPMs offering services in licensed birth centers
- American Association of Birth Center's provision that mandates Medicaid reimbursement of the birth center facility fee
- Childbirth Connection's provision requiring quality assessment and improvement measures specific to maternity care
- American College of Nurse Midwives' equitable reimbursement act for Certified Nurse Midwives
- And: giving birth, having a cesarean section, or being the victim of domestic abuse will no longer be considered pre-existing conditions and used to deny insurance coverage to women!
Certainly there were other issues that were not included, such as reimbursement or coverage for home birth services, maternity leave reform and others. What birth related reform were you looking for or are you the most excited about?
Thanks for writing this. It’s a start. My biggest fear is that change in the gov’t this November might attempt to repeal it all, and we’ll be going backwards. I wish prenatal care was mandated as preventive care, as my private insurer only covers pregnancy “complications” and I am having to pay my entire prenatal care out of pocket. I find that outrageous, but the United States really seems to have its blinders on when it comes to taking care of its own . . . I’m glad to see birth center midwives being covered by Medicaid, but I’d like to see private insurers mandated to do so as well, and homebirth services covered, too. Extra bonus– coverage for doulas and lactation consultants as well as maternity leave. I’m from FL, but I had my first two babies in Canada, and let me tell you, you Americans don’t know what you are missing!
Repealing the health care bill is not going backward; it allows the United States to go forward without going bankrupt. There are many other ways to reform health care. Stay active and involved in government and pick the people who can solve the problems we have in health care. We must allow each and every person the ability to persue life, liberty and happiness without enslaving our people with debt. Policies that destroy the country are not solutions.
I really like the Medicaid coverage of CPMs in birth centers. And the coverage of birth centers. It could be a tremendous asset to rural areas like my own. We have an underserved maternity population where care given through birth centers and midwives to low risk women would greatly relieve the burden so many women face in finding a care provider. I just hope the state gets on board to support birthing centers. Ideally, I’d like to see homebirth covered as well.
There are a lot of ways to eliminate a deficit, or pay for a program, without denying your citizens the basic human right of health care. Just ask every other industrialized country on the planet. And the rising cost of health care is bankrupting us anyway, without reform. So the price tag is not a good enough reason for letting Americans die or allowing insurance company abuses to bankrupt them when treatment and care are available. I do agree that it is a shame some of the cost-cutting measures, such as the public option, were eliminated from the bill. But I think the real reason behind that is the powerful hold that lobbyists and big business have on our elected officials. If we could eradicate that cancer, it would be much easier to legislate an America we can all benefit from.
Actually, by requiring Medicaid to cover birth centers and CPMs in such centers, Medicaid might actually SAVE money. I’m not usually one for regulating this kind of stuff, but insurance companies seem to have no interest in saving themselves money and providing better care for Americans, so guess the gov’t had to step in, just as they did to avoid drive-by births.