MAP: Mississippi makes it uniquely hard for low-income new moms to get health care

Mississippi Today

Low-income women in Mississippi have less access to health care in the months after giving birth than their counterparts in every state except Wyoming. Mississippi and Wyoming are now the only two states in the country that have neither expanded Medicaid eligibility to low-income working adults, nor extended postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers beyond 60 days after birth, according to data compiled by the health nonprofit KFF.  The other nine states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility have all sought to extend postpartum coverage in recent years. Seven of them, including Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, have extended coverage to a year after birth. Texas and Wisconsin have sought federal approval to implement shorter extensions of six months and 90 days, respectively.

© 2016 Mississippi Health Advocacy Program