Alabama bill seeks to expand prenatal Medicaid coverage
HB 89, sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, proposes 60 days of prenatal Medicaid coverage for low-income pregnant people, aimed at improving health outcomes. (Getty)
Alabama lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to provide prenatal care to low-income pregnant people for up to 60 days during pregnancy.
HB 89, sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, aims to improve maternal and infant health outcomes by expanding access to prenatal care. It would provide 'presumptive Medicaid eligibility' for pregnant people, allowing them to receive Medicaid coverage for up to 60 days before formal approval of their Medicaid applications.
'Our maternal healthcare outcomes are among the worst in the country, infant mortality as well,' Lands said in an interview Monday. 'This bill, in particular, seems like it's one that a lot of people would see as a first step toward improving outcomes in this state. It's not going to have much of a cost associated with it, and the cost savings potential is pretty amazing.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Alabama has long struggled with high maternal mortality rates and poor infant health outcomes. Alabama's infant mortality rate increased to 7.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, the highest since 2016. Alabama's infant mortality rate jumped from 6.7 per 1,000 live births in 2022 to 7.8 per 1,000 live births in 2023, a statistically significant increase and above the national provisional rate of 5.6 for the same period. Low birth weight and preterm births remain key risk factors.
Additionally, 143 of the 1,112 babies born on average each week in Alabama are born preterm, defined by the CDC as births that happen before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Of those, 22 babies a week are born 'very preterm,' or under 35 weeks gestation. The earlier a baby is born, the higher the risks for breathing problems, feeding difficulties, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, or vision and hearing problems.
While some lawmakers expressed concerns about funding, Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said she supports the bill not only because it may potentially save the state money in the long run but also because it 'promotes children being born healthier, and mothers being able to take care of themselves.'
'I think that the healthier we can have our babies, and the mamas are taken care of, the better it is for our state, and so I am supporting this bill,' Collins said.
Although a fiscal note was not attached to the legislation, Lands said that it was estimated to be around $1 million. Both Lands and Collins said that it could be an overestimation, but the state's share of Alabama's Medicaid budget, expected to exceed $1 billion in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, could pose a challenge.
'When you're on a budget committee, and you're actually looking at every single expenditure, it's a hard thing to include an increase in a budget when you know you're already at the line,' Collins said.
Lands said that the bill could have a cost-savings potential of over $400 million, not included in the original $1 million potential cost, by reducing preterm births. Alabama has 58,000 births per year, with 12.9% being preterm, costing an average of $60,000 per birth.
'We were calculating a reduction in what we thought would be an achievable reduction in preterm births, and what that would look like. So it's pretty big,' Lands said.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Poll: Americans Really, Really Hate Trump's Big Beautiful Bill
A new Quinippiac poll shows that a majority of Americans are opposed to Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, confirming public aversion to a budget bill expected to add $2.4 trillion to the deficit, give a tax break to wealthy people and corporations, and slash critical Medicaid and food stamp programs. Almost half of all voters think Medicaid funding should be increased, not decreased. Only 67 percent of Republicans are in favor of the bill, a byproduct of the conflict between Trump and more conservative, deficit hawk Republicans who are threatening to tank it. 89 percent of Democrats oppose the bill, as well as 57 percent of independents. The same poll found that majorities disapproved of Trump's handling of a number of other issues as well, including immigration and deportations—once his strongest issue, only 43 percent approve of his handling of the former and 40 percent of the latter. Only 40 percent of voters think he's doing a good job on the economy, another area he was recently dominant in. His worst issue by far, however, was his handling of Russia's invasion of Ukraine—where only 34 percent of voters think he's doing a good job. That is hardly surprising, however, given that Trump had promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would end the war immediately upon retaking office. That obviously hasn't happened; indeed, peace seems further away than ever. Immigration (54/43 disapprove) The economy (56/40 disapprove) Israel/Hamas conflict (52/35 disapprove) Russia/Ukraine war (57/34 disapprove) Trade (57/38 disapprove) Deportations (56/40 disapprove) Universities
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
House GOP approves ‘technical changes' to Trump agenda bill
House Republicans on Wednesday greenlighted a series of 'technical changes' to the party's tax cut and spending package, removing language that would have thrown their effort off course in the Senate. The chamber approved the tweaks — which were tucked inside a procedural rule for a separate measure — in a 213-207 vote, weeks after Republicans passed the sprawling package full of President Trump's legislative priorities. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP 'no' vote. The adopted rule also tees up a final vote on the White House's bill to claw back $9.4 billion in federal spending. House GOP leaders moved to make the changes after the Senate parliamentarian scrubbed through the legislation — a procedure known as the 'Byrd bath' — and identified provisions and language that do not comply with the strict rules for the budget reconciliation process, which the GOP trifecta is using to circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and approve the bill by a simple majority. Leaving the legislation as it was risked the parliamentarian ruling that it was not compliant, which would have resulted in the threshold for passage in the Senate increasing from a simple majority to 60 votes — allowing Democratic opposition to block it. The changes to the Trump agenda bill — officially titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — pertain to defense funding, energy policy and changes to Medicaid. For defense, Republicans nixed $2 billion for the enhancement of military intelligence programs; $500 million for the development, procurement and integration of maritime mines; and $62 million to convert Ohio-class submarine tubes to accept additional missiles. On the energy front, meanwhile, the changes removed a provision that would have reinstated leases for a proposed copper and nickel mine that had been renewed under the first Trump administration but revoked under former President Biden. The mine would have been near an area known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a nature preserve that contains canoe routes and species including black bears, moose and foxes. While leaders moved to strike some portions of the bill, they still plan to fight for those provisions when the package hits the Senate floor. 'We disagree; ultimately we're going to try it again on the Senate floor,' House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday. ' We disagree with the parliamentarian. … But you can't take the risk on any of them. You cannot take the risk because if any one of them is ruled on the Senate floor to be fatal, it's a 60-vote bill. The whole bill is a 60-vote bill — you can't take that risk.' With the changes made, the House is now expected to formally send the package to the Senate, where Republicans are mapping out their own changes to the behemoth bill. Some GOP senators want to decrease the state and local tax deduction cap, others are pushing to increase the spending cuts in the bill, and a subset are pressing for a smaller rollback of the green energy tax credits that Democrats approved in 2022. Any changes to the House bill in the Senate, however, risks party leadership losing support in the lower chamber, which will have to approve the Senate's tweaks before the bill can head to Trump's desk for signature. Party leaders are still hoping to enact the package by July 4, but that timeline is coming into serious question as Republicans remain at odds over a series of high-stakes issues. Rachel Frazin contributed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kennedy names new members of CDC vaccine advisory panel days after removing previous advisers
Just two days after retiring the entirety of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed several prominent critics of the government's Covid-19 response to that committee. He announced eight new members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, on Wednesday. Kennedy had said Monday that the previous 17-member panel that makes recommendations on who should get vaccines and when was rife with conflicts of interest and that he would appoint new 'highly credentialed' experts in time for the panel's June 25 meeting, at which the members are expected to discuss guidance for Covid-19 and HPV shots, among others. In a statement Wednesday, Kennedy said the reassembled panel will demand 'definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations, but will also review data for the current vaccine schedule as well.' The eight new ACIP members include Dr. Robert Malone, a biochemist who made early innovations in the field of messenger RNA but in more recent years has been a vocal critic of mRNA technology in Covid-19 vaccines. The CDC recently narrowed its recommendations for mRNA Covid-19 shots, but some advocates in the Make America Healthy Again space have pressed Kennedy to go further and bar the vaccines entirely. Another new member is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who co-authored an October 2020 strategy on herd immunity known as the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now director of the US National Institutes of Health. Both Malone's and Kulldorff's names were circulated early in the second Trump administration as potential advisers on ACIP or other panels, according to a person familiar with the process who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak with CNN. Kennedy also chose Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician he described as a 'strong advocate for evidence-based medicine' who has served on hospital committees and medical executive boards. Dr. Retsef Levi, an MIT professor who has published studies on mRNA vaccines and cardiovascular events, is also joining the panel. Levi is a professor of operations management. Several of the new members have served in federal health agencies previously, including Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a former acting chief of the NIH's section on nutritional neurosciences. Dr. Cody Meissner, a Dartmouth professor of pediatrics who also signed the Great Barrington Declaration, has previously served on ACIP and on the US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, the Pacific region director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses, also served on the FDA committee and on a national panel reviewing the 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Dr. Michael Ross, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, has previously served on the CDC's Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Breast and Cervical Cancer. Kennedy also nodded in his statement to Ross' 'continued service on biotech and healthcare boards.' The private equity company Havencrest, in which Ross is an operating partner, describes him on its site as a 'serial CEO' who has served on the boards of several biotechnology companies.