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Expand Pre-natal Care for Low Income Women
Please OPPOSE House Budget Item 324 #1h, which defers about $3.3 million state dollars and over $6 million in federal funds originally tagged to expand eligibility for prenatal care through the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan (FAMIS) program. The introduced budget would have expanded FAMIS eligibility to pregnant women who are over the age of 19 with an annual family income in excess of the Medicaid limit but less than or equal to 175% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
Current Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women is set at 133% of the FPL.
Reasons for supporting the expansion of pre-natal care:
· Prenatal care is extremely cost effective:
· A woman who does not receive prenatal care is three times more likely to deliver a low birth weight baby.
· Hospital charges for severe premature/low-birth weight babies are sixty times more than an uncomplicated birth.
· FAMIS allows the state to receive $2 from the federal government for every $1 spent - possibly the best investment in health care today. This makes business sense.
· By expanding coverage, Virginia would avoid indigent care costs and the enormous costs associated with poor birth outcomes from lack of appropriate prenatal care.
· Forty states have higher eligibility levels than Virginia’s current level.
The Virginia Interfaith Center believes that the budget conferees should expand the number of low income women receiving pre-natal care by defeating this House amendment (House Budget Item 324 #1h) and restoring funding proposed by Governor Mark Warner.
Specific actions will be announced when Conferees are named.
Fore more information, please contact Mary Dunne Stewart at
office@Virginia Interfaith Center.org or 804-643-2474.
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