Read on Twitter
HHS just released a plan to improve maternal health in the U.S., with goal of reducing the maternal mortality rate by 50%, reducing low-risk C-sections by 25% and achieving 80% of women of reproductive age with hypertension having controlled blood pressure by 2025. Some thoughts:
First, why is this necessary? As @commonwealthfnd recently outlined, pregnant women and new moms in the U.S. fare terribly compared to those in other developed countries. And the maternal mortality rate is significantly higher among black women. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/nov/maternal-mortality-maternity-care-us-compared-10-countries
The U.S. didn't even have an official maternal mortality rate until the beginning of 2020. (were relying on related measures, like pregnancy-related or associated deaths). "You can't see what you're not measuring," OB-GYN @neel_shah said at the time https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-01-30/why-the-new-us-maternal-mortality-rate-is-important
Maternal health has received bipartisan interest in the last few years. In 2018, Congress passed $60 million to help states shore up data collection on maternal healths. And members of Congress, including VP-Elect @KamalaHarris, have intro'd additional legislation since then
The House recently passed a bill that would allow states to extend Medicaid coverage for women 1 year postpartum, up from standard 60 days. But @ChelseaCirruzzo notes it appears the new HHS plan supports coverage just for women with substance use disorder https://twitter.com/ChelseaCirruzzo/status/1334506526158041089
The HHS action plan lays out 4 goals (improve health for women of reproductive age, healthy pregnancy/births, better data, improved postpartum care) and notes disparities associated with each goal. https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/aspe-files/264076/healthy-women-healthy-pregnancies-healthy-future-action-plan_0.pdf
Last thing b/c this thread is too long already -- this stuff is hard to do. Last year I wrote about why Louisiana's efforts to bring down the low-risk C-section rate were working in some places and not in others. https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-09-25/high-c-section-rates-at-birth-raise-questions-about-hospitals-health
