Reducing Kentucky’s “abysmal” maternal mortality rate is the push behind a broad bipartisan health bill called the “Save Kentucky Moms Act,” which Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser unveiled Wednesday.
Moser (R-Taylor Mill) introduced the legislation alongside nine other female lawmakers who want to reduce the state’s high rate of death from pregnancy. The House Health Services chair said her bill (House Bill 10) would ensure all pregnant moms qualify for health coverage and add training in pediatric health trauma, lactation support, and “safe sleep” (to prevent sudden infant death) to the state’s voluntary home-visitation program for new parents.
The proposal would also increase support for mothers struggling with addiction. In 2018, substance use disorders contributed to a portion of the state’s 76 pregnancy-related deaths. That was the highest total number of maternal deaths in Kentucky in any year between 2013 and 2019 according to Kentucky’s public health maternal mortality review in 2021.
Moser said expanded Medicaid for prenatal care in 2022 has shown progress in helping mothers with substance use disorder. The bill would build on that progress, she said.
“This bill will pick up where that leaves off” in the substance use arena, she told reporters.
Other common factors in maternal mortality are Kentucky’s high rate of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even poor dental health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 38.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 Kentucky live births in 2018-2021. That rate was 65% higher than the national rate of 23.5% for the same period for mothers who were pregnant or within 42 days of childbirth when they died.
Nationally, the maternal mortality rate is currently 23.8 per 100,000 live births but the rate worsens when broken down by race. According to Moser, the rate is almost 48 per 100,000 for Black women.
Louisville Democrat Sarah Stalker appeared with Moser and other lawmakers in support of HB 10 on Wednesday. Stalker, who in 2023 proposed adding pregnancy as a “qualifying life event” that allows people to enroll in a plan outside of annual enrollment, called the insurance provision a “critical part of this legislation.”
If HB 10 becomes law, Stalker said Kentucky would become one of only a handful of states to give pregnant women that health option. New York was the first in 2016, she said. Five other states or jurisdictions, including Washington, DC, have added the qualifying language since then.
“This bill gives Kentucky the chance to be one of the first,” Stalker said Wednesday. “This speaks volumes to me as a legislator and a Kentuckian with a room full of women with varying opinions and experiences and political identities to sit down and acknowledge the abysmal maternal health outcomes that we have in this state.”