Medicaid to expand for pregnant women

Friday, June 16, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY - More low-income pregnant women in Nevada will be eligible for free prenatal care this summer.

By July 1, hundreds more women are expected to qualify for expanded Medicaid prenatal care thanks to the program's eligibility standards being broadened, said Mike Willden, director of the state Health and Human Services Department.

Currently, women earning $1,061 a month or less qualify for the pregnancy care. The new income ceiling will be $1,511 per month, a change expected to make more than 400 additional women eligible this fiscal year. By fiscal 2008, state officials estimate that nearly an extra 2,100 women will qualify.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who pushed the bill expanding eligibility for the prenatal program through the 2005 Legislature, said the change would lead to healthier babies and lower hospital emergency room costs.

Lower-income working women, she said, often cannot afford medical checkups during pregnancy, sometimes leading to costly health problems for newborns.

The ultimate savings stemming from additional prenatal care could be expanded, officials say, by another program aimed at helping small businesses provide health insurance coverage for workers with families.

About 350 small businesses are expected to begin offering workers health insurance under the program, according to state estimates. That number is expected to explode to 3,763 businesses by fiscal 2008.

Under the program, expected to start in August or September, businesses with two to 49 workers would pay 50 percent of employees' health insurance premiums, with the state providing up to $100 a month to workers to cover their portion of the cost.

An estimated one in six Nevadans does not have health insurance coverage.

The two programs are expected to cost $1 million this fiscal year, but the price will jump to $17.1 million next year.

Patrick Cates, administrative services officer of the state Health Care and Financing Division, said the federal government will pay about 68 percent - about $12 million - of the cost next year. The state will provide an estimated $2.2 million, and the remainder will come from a fund now used by counties to pay hospital costs for indigents.