Sponsors (10)
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Creates a package of federal actions to reduce maternal deaths and improve care for pregnant and postpartum people by expanding Medicaid/CHIP coverage (including a required 12-month postpartum benefit and mandated oral health services), funding state perinatal quality collaboratives and regional centers to address bias and respectful care, investing in doula workforce training, and piloting rural mobile obstetric units. It also requires hospitals to notify HHS before closing obstetric units and directs a broad federal review of maternal health spending and needs. Separately, it raises and reforms federal excise taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, adds indexing for inflation, and creates new tax rules for single-use tobacco products.
The bill would expand postpartum coverage, workforce supports, data systems, and rural services to reduce maternal morbidity and disparities—improving access and accountability—but does so at substantial fiscal and administrative cost and with privacy, provider‑capacity, and small‑business compliance risks that could limit how quickly or effectively benefits reach people.
Pregnant and postpartum Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries will get guaranteed continuous 12‑month postpartum coverage (including mandated dental benefits) and enhanced federal matching that reduces coverage gaps after childbirth.
People in underserved, Black, and rural communities will gain greater access to doulas and a strengthened maternal-care workforce through scholarships, training pathways, regional centers of excellence, and federal grants/perinatal quality collaboratives that support culturally competent care.
Pregnant people, policymakers, and providers will have better data—via a federal maternal mortality registry, standardized reporting, and a comprehensive 2000–2024 spending/needs analysis—enabling more targeted interventions and accountability for disparities.
Federal and state budgets will face significant added costs from mandatory extended Medicaid/CHIP benefits, dental coverage, workforce grants, enhanced FMAPs, and other authorizations, with long‑term fiscal implications when temporary matching rates end.
States, hospitals, providers, and HHS will face substantial administrative and implementation burdens—eligibility updates, provider enrollment, reporting, registry maintenance, pilot reporting, and new regulatory compliance—that could strain capacity and slow rollout.
Expanded data collection and detailed disaggregation raise privacy risks for birthing people and small localities if de‑identification and safeguards are insufficient.
Introduced November 25, 2025 by Robin L. Kelly · Last progress November 25, 2025