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Legislative efforts to address maternal health disparities are continuing to gain traction in both Richmond and Washington, D.C.
Less than a week after a fresh batch of bills cleared the Virginia General Assembly and were sent to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ announced a 13-bill package called the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act.
“Momnibus,” a riff on the term omnibus, was also a colloquial title for Virginia’s slate of maternal health bills in recent years. Congress’ version similarly includes a handful of proposals aimed at improving health outcomes through investments in perinatal workforce, telehealth, insurance coverage, and data collection. It focuses on parents of color, as studies have shown a higher likelihood of negative health outcomes or death for them.
First introduced in 2020 days before the COVID-19 pandemic, Booker has been a key sponsor of the package in recent years, though it’s not yet advanced to become law. Kaine has been a recurrent co-sponsor of the package, along with several other lawmakers in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
Kaine plans to discuss the overall package and a bill within it that he’s spearheading when the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meets later this week to talk about what members believe could be bipartisan priorities for the year.
Within the package, Kaine is reintroducing his Maternal Vaccinations Act, which aims to increase vaccinations for common illnesses in pregnant and postpartum people and address vaccination rate disparities.
In a Tuesday phone interview, Kaine said his colleagues across the aisle have not always been on board with all of the Momnibus package, but that he feels that “different pieces of it” are starting to garner some Republican interest.
“Trump’s anti-vaccine agenda is starting to really chase away some of my Republican colleagues,” he said.
An example of that dynamic could be found in the work of HELP committee chair Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, who has fostered public-private partnerships to vaccinate his constituents. He has both cofounded and worked in a free clinic in his state. Kaine’s maternal vaccination bill could get his support.
Maternal health policy can be a source of collaborative teamwork, Kaine said. He pointed to how the American Rescue Plan Act allowed states to extend their Medicaid coverage for people up to a year postpartum. Forty eight states including Virginia have done this; Wisconsin is in its approval process and Arkansas has not done so.
“The pickup on the provision has been equally embraced by both red and blue states, which tells me that in this area of maternal outcomes, there’s a lot of room for bipartisanship,” Kaine said.