{"id":10137,"date":"2026-05-14T17:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/?p=10137"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:15:24","slug":"healthcare-bill-expanding-maternal-care-contraception-access-heads-to-missouri-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/05\/14\/healthcare-bill-expanding-maternal-care-contraception-access-heads-to-missouri-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare bill expanding maternal care, contraception access heads to Missouri governor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

State Rep. Tara Peters, R-Rolla, speaks during Missouri House floor debate on May 5, 2025. (Tim Bommel\/Missouri House Communications)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Missouri House gave final approval Thursday to a <\/span>wide-ranging healthcare bill <\/span><\/a>expanding women\u2019s and maternal health coverage, increasing access to telehealth and requiring licensed childcare facilities to maintain allergy treatment policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The House voted 116-21 to send the legislation to Gov. Mike Kehoe in one of its final actions before the end of the legislative session. The Senate passed the bill 26-5 on Wednesday. Republicans were the only members to cast votes against the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. Tara Peters of Rolla, who sponsored the legislation, is among a handful of lawmakers who for the past four years have been trying, without success, to pass provisions included in the bill. On Thursday, she won her battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things in the state of Missouri that we focus on,\u201d Peters told The Independent. \u201cAnd healthcare is something that literally affects every single person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One measure proposed by Peters for years would allow women with <\/span>private insurance to pick up an annual supply of contraceptives<\/span><\/a> rather than going to the pharmacy every few months. This policy is already the law in a majority of states. <\/span>Studies show this increase in access and continuity can help prevent unintended pregnancy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also requires insurance to cover blood pressure monitoring equipment for pregnant and postpartum mothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another provision would prohibit discriminatory drug reimbursement practices against hospitals participating in the <\/span>federal 340B program<\/span><\/a>. The program requires drug manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell drugs at a discount to nonprofit hospitals serving uninsured and low-income patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill would also require the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to report and track cases of <\/span>alpha-gal syndrome<\/span><\/a>, a tick-borne allergy to mammal products that can be life-threatening. A Senate amendment seeking to address privacy concerns would limit disclosure of blood test results to patients and their doctors.<\/span><\/p>\n

An earlier version of the bill would have required the Missouri Department of Social Services to request federal permission to set up a \u201c<\/span>Food is Medicine<\/span><\/a>\u201d program to help Medicaid recipients access nutrition services and healthy food prescribed by a medical professional. The legislation that passed Thursday would make that program optional.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate removed several provisions after a handful of lawmakers argued at length this week that measures added to the 177-page bill would increase health insurance costs and cause government overreach.<\/span><\/p>\n

One <\/span>measure<\/span><\/a> removed from the bill would have barred insurance companies from denying coverage of a prescribed non-opioid drug in favor of an opioid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Travis Fitzwater of Holts Summit said the provision could save costs by preventing opioid addiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be able to make the case in a silo that it may or may not increase costs,\u201d Fitzwater said. \u201cBut on the back end, [the benefit] shifts towards us when people aren\u2019t going into addiction programs or aren\u2019t going into prisons and moms aren\u2019t dying as a result of not being able to track their blood pressure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Maternal health<\/h4>\n

\t<\/b><\/p>\n

On average, around 70 women die each year in Missouri during childbirth or in the first year postpartum. Of those deaths, 80% were deemed preventable by the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Missouri, the health department\u2019s <\/span>Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review Board<\/span><\/a> tracks maternal health outcomes. An amendment to the bill, filed by state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, expands the board\u2019s duties to include studying the state\u2019s maternal healthcare deserts, tracking the level of prenatal and postnatal care given to women who die in childbirth or postpartum and making recommendations to combat racial inequities in maternal deaths.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Missouri, babies and mothers continue to die at higher rates than the national average, according to the <\/span>March of Dimes.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill requires insurance to cover home blood pressure monitoring devices for women who are pregnant or in the 12-month postpartum period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great day for private insurance to have to pay for those and help some of our pregnant women with hypertension,\u201d Peters said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, is among the leading causes of pregnancy-related underlying causes of deaths in Missouri, according to the Missouri Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doulas have increasingly been cited as part of the solution to Missouri\u2019s poor maternal and infant birth outcomes. The legislation expands doula services for low-income families enrolled in the state\u2019s Medicaid program from six to 16 visits covering pregnancy, birth, postpartum and lactation support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doulas do not deliver babies, but rather advocate for the emotional and physical wellbeing of families and can help connect them with other resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also expands insurance coverage through <\/span>Show-Me Healthy Babies<\/span><\/a>, the state\u2019s Medicaid program for pregnancy and postpartum, to include childbirth education classes.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PBM restrictions removed from bill<\/h4>\n

\t<\/b><\/p>\n

The Senate removed a series of proposed restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, which administer prescription drug plans for insurers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics of PBMs argue they have become too closely integrated with insurance companies and national pharmacy chains, giving preferential pricing to certain pharmacies while reimbursing independent and family-owned pharmacies below the prices they pay drug companies for medication.<\/span><\/p>\n

The measures removed from the bill, part of legislation sponsored by Republican state Sen. Jill Carter of Granby, would have limited when and how PBMs can audit pharmacies and required PBMs to reimburse pharmacies according to the prevailing market value of medications.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat, accused those in support of the amendment of backtracking on negotiated language and threatened to block discussion of any proposed changes in future years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a deal that was made, as you know, and there\u2019s language that was acceptable [to] everybody, and then that language got pulled,\u201d Beck said. \u201cSo what I\u2019m going to say is\u2026for the next two years, there\u2019s going to be no PBM stuff going through this chamber. I\u2019m tired of talking about the subject.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moving the needle<\/h4>\n

\t<\/b><\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. Melanie Stinnett of Springfield, who chairs the House Health and Mental Health Committee and sponsored some of the measures in the bill, told The Independent that the legislation is an example of what bipartisan collaboration can accomplish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis session, we really showed up and offered some exciting wins for Missouri in the space of health care that in prior sessions seemed to be really challenging,\u201d Stinnett said. \u201cSo I think that when we all sit down and get together and figure out what that looks like, what we need to really move forward, then that can be accomplished.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While lawmakers made some compromises, Stinnett said they also scored a lot of wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get everything we wanted,\u201d Stinnett said, \u201cbut we moved the needle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on the link at the top of this article to be taken to the complete article.<\/p>

This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Missouri House gave final approval Thursday to a wide-ranging healthcare bill expanding women\u2019s and maternal health coverage, increasing access to telehealth and requiring licensed childcare facilities to maintain allergy treatment policies. The House voted 116-21 to send the legislation to Gov. Mike Kehoe in one of its final actions before the end of the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":10139,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-missouri-independent","post_format-post-format-link"],"yoast_head":"\nHealthcare bill expanding maternal care, contraception access heads to Missouri governor - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/05\/14\/healthcare-bill-expanding-maternal-care-contraception-access-heads-to-missouri-governor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healthcare bill expanding maternal care, contraception access heads to Missouri governor - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Missouri House gave final approval Thursday to a wide-ranging healthcare bill expanding women\u2019s and maternal health coverage, increasing access to telehealth and requiring licensed childcare facilities to maintain allergy treatment policies. 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