Post-Partum Depression Care - House Bill 1110

Reports by The Texas Tribune, University of Maryland, and Boston University researchers shed light on our state's startling maternal mortality crisis. The latter report uncovered some flaws in the state's data but confirmed an increase in the number of Texas women dying during pregnancy, childbirth, or the first weeks after delivery.

More than half of maternal deaths in Texas occur 60 days or more after delivery, or exactly when new mothers lose all Medicaid benefits. 68 percent of these deaths involved women who were enrolled in Medicaid at the time of delivery.

House Bill 1110 by Rep. Sarah Davis takes the common-sense step of extending the existing maternal Medicaid benefit from 60 days after delivery to 12 months.

The maternal mortality rates have some distinct causes and solutions, such as improving delivery protocols to reduce pregnancy complications and investing in proven home visiting programs to prevent tragic infant injuries.

However, improving women's access to health care must be at the heart of efforts to save the lives of mothers and babies and to ensure that more children get a healthy start to life.

Major causes of maternal deaths in Texas are often linked to overdose or a lack of access to health care before, during and after pregnancy. Uninsured women can't begin the Medicaid application process, much less start scheduling a prenatal appointment with an Ob-Gyn, until after they know they are pregnant.

In a state still recovering from huge cuts to family planning, many pregnancies are unintended and therefore identified later, further delaying prenatal care. Two months after delivery, Texas cuts off the mom's Medicaid. For women addicted to opioids or other substances --- either before, during, or after pregnancy --- access to treatment programs is limited.

Last legislative session, the state took some small steps, maintaining funding for family planning through the Healthy Texas Women program, continuing the state task force that studies maternal mortality, expanding access to postpartum depression screenings, and instructing legislative committees to spend 2018 looking into some of these issues, including substance use.

The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Taskforce's top recommendation in its September 2018 report was "increasing access to health services during the year after pregnancy."

We thank Rep. Sarah Davis for filing this bill and the 4 co-authors and her 30 cosponsors for trying to pass House Bill 1110. The bill died in the House Calendars Committee.