The AMA and hundreds of other organizations are urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to swiftly approve demonstration projects that would extend the coverage period for people who enroll in Medicaid while pregnant to a full year after the pregnancy ends.

About 700 pregnancy-related deaths happen in the U.S. annually, with 60% of them being preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There “are stark racial inequities in maternal mortality,” and the pandemic “risks exacerbating the maternal health crisis,” says the letter sent by hundreds of national, state and local organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.