\n\t<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\nSix weeks after an emergency cesarean section, with her newborn twins still in neonatal intensive care, Maya Gobara went to a pharmacy in West Little Rock, Arkansas, to fill a prescription.<\/p>\n\u201cThe pharmacy told me I didn\u2019t have insurance,\u201d Gobara said.<\/p>\nArkansas is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicaid\/issue-brief\/medicaid-postpartum-coverage-extension-tracker\/\">only state<\/a> that has not taken the step to expand what\u2019s called postpartum Medicaid coverage, an option for states paid for almost entirely by the federal government that ensures poor women have uninterrupted health insurance for a year after they give birth. Forty-six states now have the provision, encouraged by the Biden administration, and Idaho, Iowa, and Wisconsin either have plans in place to enact legislation or have bills pending in their legislatures.<\/p>\nFederal law requires states to provide pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage through 60 days after delivery. But maternal health advocates say Arkansas often begins the process of moving women out of the program after six weeks, or 42 days. <\/p>\nGobara said she thinks that\u2019s what happened to her: She was transferred to another health plan with a different slate of doctors, and she didn\u2019t receive notice of the change.<\/p>\nGobara, who is 38 and a freelance copywriter, said the health plan switch happened to her just as a cascade of previous health problems \u2014 an autoimmune disorder, postpartum depression, and rheumatoid arthritis \u2014 flared up.<\/p>\n\u201cEverything that I had before hit me like a ton of bricks at once after I had the boys,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nMaternal health advocates say many lower-income women in Arkansas have fallen into that familiar health care gap.<\/p>\nArkansas has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the nation, a grim tally of women who die from any cause related to pregnancy or childbirth, including weeks after delivery. In Arkansas, 20% to 29% of women are uninsured at some point over the period before they conceive to after they give birth.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn March, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed an executive order creating a committee of experts charged with improving the state\u2019s dismal maternal health outcomes and better educating women about their health insurance options.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block block--newsletter \" data-type=\"kaiser-health-news\/newsletter\" data-align=\"center\" style=\"\">\n<h4 class=\"newsletter__title\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/email\/\"> \n\t\t\tEmail Sign-Up\t\t<\/a> \n\t<\/h4>\n\n\t\tSubscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAt a press conference announcing the initiative, Gov. Huckabee Sanders said, \u201cThis specific group that we\u2019re establishing through the executive order, they\u2019re going to look at every option on the table.\u201d<\/p>\nWhen asked by reporters at the press conference about whether she would support expanding postpartum Medicaid to 12 months of coverage as other states have done, the answer was a firm \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t believe creating a duplicative program just for the sake of creating a program is actually going to fix the issue,\u201d she said. \u201cWe already have so many women who aren\u2019t taking advantage of the coverage that exists. Creating more coverage doesn\u2019t get more women to the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\nHuckabee Sanders, 42, is the youngest governor currently serving, and she is the parent of three school-age children.<\/p>\nIn Arkansas, postpartum women can apply for other insurance coverage in Arkansas six weeks after delivery, but they must send in a paper application, said Zenobia Harris, executive director of the Arkansas Birthing Project, a mentor program that works with pregnant and postpartum women.<\/p>\n\u201cWomen get told things like their paperwork got misplaced or lost or they have to resubmit paperwork. They get put on hold when they make phone calls in trying to connect with people,\u201d Harris said. \u201cSo, some people, they quit trying.\u201d<\/p>\nLower-income women, like Maya Gobara, are shifted into <a href=\"https:\/\/humanservices.arkansas.gov\/divisions-shared-services\/medical-services\/healthcare-programs\/arhome\/\">ARHOME, a state program<\/a> touted by Huckabee Sanders, that uses Medicaid funding to buy private health insurance.<\/p>\nThe shift to new health coverage happened to Gobara while her twins, Amir and Bryson, were on breathing tubes and needed multiple brain surgeries and she required urgent gallbladder surgery.<\/p>\n\u201cI was supposed to have my gallbladder taken out in one week, but with this new plan I needed a referral for that surgery, but I no longer could see my primary care doctor because she wasn\u2019t under that plan that they put me under,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nSeized with gallbladder pain, Gobara spent days sorting out what had happened to her postpartum Medicaid coverage.<\/p>\n\u201cIt felt like the system was set up so I would give up,\u201d Gobara said. \u201cAnd, honestly, if it was not for my mother sitting next to me and helping me go through step by step by step, I probably would have given up.\u201d<\/p>\nNew mothers shouldn\u2019t be shuttled from plan to plan or uninsured when they are dealing with their own health and their newborns, said Camille Richoux, health policy director for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aradvocates.org\/\">Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families<\/a>, a nonprofit advocacy and policy group. Richoux is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/governor.arkansas.gov\/news_post\/sanders-signs-executive-order-to-support-moms-protect-babies-and-improve-maternal-health\/\">governor\u2019s maternal health initiative<\/a>, a committee tasked with developing recommendations to improve maternal health and increase access to maternal health services.\u00a0<\/p>\nRichoux said the switch to a new health plan can disrupt the continuity of care when health care is vital. \u201cEspecially when so many pregnancy-related deaths occur after that 60-days-postpartum coverage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nThe committees tasked with making recommendations to Gov. Huckabee Sanders have been meeting this summer and recently prepared draft recommendations.<\/p>\nBut missing from the list is an expansion of postpartum Medicaid coverage, despite widespread agreement by health organizations and the state\u2019s Maternal Mortality Review Committee that doing so would reduce pregnancy-related deaths.<\/p>\nOne of the tasks of the maternal health initiative is \u201cmaking sure Medicaid does a better job of educating women postpartum on their health insurance options that already exist today, to ensure they get enrolled and have the coverage they need,\u201d said Alexa Henning, communications director for Gov. Huckabee Sanders in an emailed statement last month.<\/p>\n\u201cThe data indicates that most women have continuous coverage, they just need to access it,\u201d Henning said. \u201cBut if we identify gaps, the Governor is open to all options to help moms and babies.\u201d<\/p>\nThe final recommendations are expected to be released this month.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"meta-authors meta\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSarah Varney: <\/span> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/SarahVarney4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t@SarahVarney4<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"block--category-tag-list \">\n<div class=\"category-tag-list__content-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"block--category-tag-list__title\">\n\t\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"category-tag-list__contact-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/contact-us\/\"> \n\t\t\tContact Us\t\t<\/a> \n\t\t<a class=\"category-tag-list__tip-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/tips\/\"> \n\t\t\tSubmit a Story Tip\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six weeks after an emergency cesarean section, with her newborn twins still in neonatal intensive care, Maya Gobara went to a pharmacy in West Little Rock, Arkansas, to fill a prescription. \u201cThe pharmacy told me I didn\u2019t have insurance,\u201d Gobara said. Arkansas is the only state that has not taken the step to expand what\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3304,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions\/3304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}