Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg presented a plan on Monday for tackling maternal deaths, especially for women of color, by improving their access to affordable health care and birth control measures.
Media tycoon and former New York City mayor Bloomberg presented his plan while campaigning in Alabama, one of the 14 states that did not expand Medicaid under the Obama era Affordable Healthcare Act, which means 314,000 women will be excluded from post-birth health care, Bloomberg said, citing HealthInsurance.org, a non-partisan health insurance advisory institution.
Bloomberg’s plan consists of three main parts:
- Countering racial bias among healthcare practitioners by means of rendering information and training on implicit and explicit biased issues, and by granting financial incentives to health professionals who are willing to settle in rural underserved areas.
- Standardizing maternal mortality data collection by centralizing the data collection process to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) thus providing better custom made health care to black women in particular.
- Providing a free public-option insurance plan for women of low-income who otherwise would be excluded from an extended Medicaid program 60 days after giving birth. This adds up to 314,000 women of low income that would be excluded from extended medical aid in Alabama, which does not provide an expanded program under the Affordable Care Act.
Bloomberg also wants to extend free access to family planning programs, undoing efforts the Trump administration has made in financially curtailing abortion clinics.
“I’ll put a stop to Trump’s efforts to undermine women’s health, like his attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I’ll also abolish the global gag rules the Trump administration has applied to organizations that receive funding for family planning,” Bloomberg wrote on Twitter.
I’ll put a stop to Trump’s efforts to undermine women’s health, like his attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I’ll also abolish the global gag rules the Trump administration has applied to organizations that receive funding for family planning. https://t.co/pFvdvtwRnl
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 30, 2019
Bloomberg, a billionaire and businessman, is considered to be a moderate centralist Democrat. He announced his presidential candidacy in late November and has already spent over $120 million on campaign ads, according to The Hill.
