The tumult we’ve all experienced since COVID-19 hit a year ago has caused more children to struggle with education, economic insecurity, physical and mental health.

In late winter, parents throughout the U.S. began to lose work due to the pandemic, and many of them consequently lost access to employer-sponsored health coverage and the financial resources to purchase coverage on the marketplace. An estimated 300,000 additional children became uninsured because of the pandemic.

Here in Maine, we know parents and children have been hit especially hard. Gig workers had to wait while an income replacement program was set up, since they were ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits. Hospitality and service workers continue to lose work and income.

When we started to get COVID-19 case data by race and ethnicity in late April, we learned that Black Mainers accounted for nearly one out of every 10 Maine COVID-19 cases, but make up only 1.6 percent of our population.The economic toll of the pandemic – the loss of employer-sponsored health insurance and the income that would allow families to purchase replacement coverage – has deprived families of care they need during this public health crisis.

Children who lack access to affordable health care often don’t have a primary care provider and don’t receive medical treatment when they need it. And uninsured children with common childhood illnesses and injuries don’t receive the same level of care as insured children. They also are at higher risk for preventable hospitalizations and missed diagnoses of serious health conditions.

Families of uninsured children face unaffordable medical bills that increase financial insecurity. Similarly, the lack of health care coverage after a pregnancy makes it impossible for new parents to receive care for their physical and mental health needs during the year following birth, which in turn affects their infants’ emotional and cognitive development.

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We need to prioritize access to health care that is affordable and effective for children and their parents. Full stop. Health care is a human right, and while health insurance is expensive, cost-effective options to provide excellent childhood and postpartum coverage exist. We are doing our communities in Maine a disservice if we do not prioritize families’ basic health needs and our future.

I have introduced two bills this year to help working families get the health care they need.

L.D. 265, “An Act To Provide Access to Affordable Postpartum Care,” would extend the length of MaineCare postpartum coverage from 60 days to one full year following birth. This coverage will provide medical treatment for complications from pregnancy, difficulty breastfeeding, postpartum depression and other health conditions that make it hard for new parents to care for themselves and their newborns.

Coverage will also be available to provide treatment for smoking cessation and substance use disorder, to help prevent relapse. Gratefully, we do not have to burden Maine taxpayers with this expansion of coverage. Instead, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which passed in mid-March, provides measures to bolster Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), including the option for states to receive federal matching funds to expand postpartum care to a full year after birth.

The second bill is L.D. 372, “An Act To Provide Maine Children Access to Affordable Health Care.” L.D. 372 would strengthen Maine’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. These changes include expanding the maximum eligibility level to cover more Maine children. CHIP gives Maine a cost-effective way to provide more children access to affordable health care and helps children reach their full potential, improving short- and long-term health, high school and college graduation rates, and future economic stability.

Giving children health care coverage through CHIP lets working parents put income toward savings, improved housing, childcare and education instead of private insurance. We know raising a family is expensive. L.D. 372 could transform household budgets and let families invest in the economy in other ways instead of worrying how to pay for their children’s health care.

Maine families struggled to afford health care before the pandemic, and COVID-19 related income loss puts health care coverage further out of reach for working families. This is the right time for Maine to make sure we are doing all we can to support young families and protect the health of our children.


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