Indiana and West Virginia have taken the Alito Court’s cue and banned nearly all abortions. (Indiana’s ban was just suspended in court last week.) Unlike South Dakota, they have at least had the decency to expand Medicaid for the women whom they will force to bear children for the state:
Indiana and West Virginia, two states that recently banned nearly all abortions, received federal approval this month to offer women Medicaid-funded health care during their pregnancy and for 12 months after they give birth.
They join 23 other states and the District of Columbia that already have extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year after childbirth. Eight additional states — Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have applications pending.
Among the 26 states that have or are expected to ban abortion, 14 states have not yet applied for the full one-year postpartum extension: Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming [Christine Vestal, “More States Extend Postpartum Medicaid Since Roe’s Demise,” Pew: Stateline, 2022.09.20].
We know that expanding Medicaid reduces infant mortality and maternal mortality. But the Legislature has consistently refused to add saving lives of moms and babies to its “pro-life” agenda, and the Governor refused to call a Special Session this summer to respond to the Alito-triggered enactment of South Dakota’s extreme abortion ban with the expansion of Medicaid that Democrats proposed to women to 180 days after the end of their pregnancies. South Dakota’s one-party regime just wants to control women, not help them.
Oh well—it looks like voters will just have to expand Medicaid themselves on November 8.
Flush with cash we hope to spend $10 million to build a clinic near the Texas border to provide medical care for women who are forced to live in red states.
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-michelle-lujan-grisham-new-mexico-275e9af532929a198f12e65e7e049c96
I am hopeful that expanding Medicare coverage will decrease our current costs we all absorb in higher insurance rates, inflated prices and outrageous prescription costs which cover a significant percentage of the population who use emergency rooms and don’t pay for hospitalization. Somebody pays, and it’s the people with insurance. The “providers” don’t absorb those costs into the “cost of doing business.” They pass the costs on to those who can pay. I’m not sure it will as “health care providers” aren’t known for leaving money on the table. There is a social benefit when more people are able to afford preventive care. I’m more than willing to give Medicare expansion a try.
Should have said Medicaid expansion…there is difference…slipping again.