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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>ckumelos</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15366453"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I know in my state the midwives won't accept Medicaid for a few reasons.<br><br>
1. They need to make a living and can't drop their rates to accomodate the low reimbursement of assistance programs.<br>
2. They think that people having babies should learn to budget and pay their own bills.<br>
3. They would have to follow more federal regulations in their practice.<br><br>
There are pros and cons to accepting government assistance and I am glad that there are some midwives in California who are accepting it, but we have to understand the extra liabilities and limitations midwives are placed under after accepting government subsidies.</div>
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What state do you live in?<br><br>
I'm hoping you didn't mean it that way, but #2 just seems so incredibly judgemental!!! WOW! I've been of the opinion for such a long time that economically challenged women deserve to choose homebirth too! Just because they happen to be poor does not mean they can't pay their bills!?!?! Being on Medi-cal doesn't mean you don't have a job, pay your rent or are not responsible in lots of other ways. Did you mean it to say that women on medicade are not budgeting and paying their own bills?<br>
Some women who are in the income bracket of being able to qualify for medi-cal could greatly benefit from the amazing empowerment that some experience from their homebirths and from the radically different care that they receive at the hands of midwives. Looking back at my own births, I wish I had had the option of homebirth with medi-cal with my first son. I didn't, and had a traumatic hospital birth. It's part of what led me into birth work, so for that I'm grateful, but I also know how very very important it is that birthing women be treated with love and respect, and I have personally witnessed many many women on state insurance being treated like cattle instead!!! Get em' in, get em' out seems to be the motto, both for the doctor's office visits and for the hospital.<br>
I have doula'd these women for free or very reduced costs and my heart has ached to see the treatment of them while in the hospital, as the nurses and other care providers know who are the "medicade" moms and who have private insurance. I've seen the calloused indifference of doctors who don't have enough time to spend with them, with their questions and concerns, because the docs themselves have to rush them through, to see enough moms to make enough money to cover their insurance and office overhead and make a living too.<br>
Sure, there are more restrictions for midwives who accept medi-cal, and as I understand it at the moment, only CNM's can take medi-cal anyway, not CPM's... so there's your first restriction... but for those women who DO qualify for homebirth with medi-cal, it may just be an incredible, life-changing experience.<br>
I'm no expert, but I think that you may have meant that the midwives have to follow more state regulations? It's a state-funded insurance we're talking about... not federal... I could be wrong though. In the case of state regs, I don't think it would be different in CA, because they're already having to follow the state regs for LM's....<br>
Respectfully,<br>
Jen
