Pennsylvanians on Medicaid risk losing health coverage when COVID emergency ends

For the past two years, people on Medicaid in Pennsylvania have been guaranteed continued health coverage — even if they’re no longer eligible. That’s because of a provision in the Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act, which requires that states keep everyone on Medicaid as long as the country is under a public health emergency. But that […]

Report: Black women account for 73% of Philadelphia’s pregnancy-related deaths

A report by the Philadelphia Maternal Mortality Review Committee has found that non-Hispanic Black women made up 43% of births in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2018 but accounted for 73% of the pregnancy-related deaths. The “Improving Outcomes: Maternal Mortality in Philadelphia” report indicates pregnancy-related deaths in the city from 2013 to 2018 was approximately 20 per […]

Under a new threshold, the number of Pa. children with high lead levels is expected to almost double

Data from the 2020 Childhood Lead Surveillance report from the Pennsylvania DOH showed the rate of children with elevated blood lead levels to be about 4.65. This is a rate two times higher than children poisoned in Flint, Mich., at the peak of the city’s crisis, according to a recent statement from the Lead-Free Promise […]

Half of US adults exposed to harmful lead levels as kids

Over 170 million U.S.-born people who were adults in 2015 were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children, a new study estimates. Researchers used blood-lead level, census and leaded gasoline consumption data to examine how widespread early childhood lead exposure was in the country between 1940 and 2015. In a paper published in the Proceedings […]

Maternal mortality rates increased during 1st year of COVID pandemic: CDC

Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. rose during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities that existed before the pandemic were perpetuated, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report looked at data from the CDC’s National Centers for Health Statistics and compared 2020 rates to […]

Early Care and Education in Governor Wolf’s 2022-23 State Budget Proposal

HARRISBURG, PA (February 9, 2022) – Today, the principal partners of Early Learning Pennsylvania (ELPA), a statewide coalition of advocates focused on supporting young Pennsylvanians from birth to age five, issued the following statements regarding Governor Tom Wolf’s 2022-23 state budget proposal. ELPA operates four issue-based advocacy campaigns: Pre-K for PA, Start Strong PA, Childhood […]

New Law Supports PA Students Facing Graduation Barriers

Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law on Wednesday to provide direct support to Pennsylvania youth experiencing educational instability, ensuring they have a clear pathway to high school graduation. Senate Bill 324 was introduced by Sen. Wayne Langherholc, R-Bedford County. It provides graduation planning and a smoother transfer of academic credits, among other resources for […]

What We See in the Shameful Trends on U.S. Maternal Health

Compared with its peers, the United States’ trajectory in maternal health has been shameful. Solving this worsening problem requires looking not just at the quality of care a woman receives but the entire environment around her — from her access to health care to the availability of food in her community.

Op-Ed: Public policy must change to protect maternal lives

Since 1980, Maternity Care Coalition has helped more than 145,000 families in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We focus on neighborhoods with high rates of poverty, infant mortality, health disparities, and changing immigration patterns. We work to ensure parents impacted by racial and social inequities in Southeastern Pennsylvania can birth with dignity, parent with autonomy and raise babies […]