JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) called on House leadership to bring postpartum Medicaid extension to a vote.

Doctors have been calling for action on expansion before the current Legislative Session began.

House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Miss.) killed a Senate postpartum extension bill in 2022 by refusing to bring it to the House floor. This year’s Senate bill has yet to be brought to the floor.

Gunn attributed his hesitancy to a lack of data. He questioned whether it would fix the problem plaguing Mississippi mothers and children.

“We’ve given the speaker and the governor several pieces of information. There was a piece, an article from Texas, that talked about health care during the public health emergency, where women who had 12 months of postpartum care had lower rates of pregnancy after that baby. That’s what we want. We want to spread out pregnancies, which improves infant mortality and prevents prematurity. The speaker and the governor have continued to just say that they want more data. We believe that every medical organization in the state is in support of this,” said Dr. Anita Henderson, a Hattiesburg Clinic pediatrician.

Senate Bill 2212 is the only piece of legislation still surviving that would extend postpartum Medicaid coverage.