FAST FACTS
Name: Verla Insko
District: 56 (Orange)
In office since: 1997
Key Committees: Appropriations; Appropriations – Health & Human Services; Education – Universities; Election Law & Campaign Finance Reform; Environment; Ethics; Health
Past career: Health administrator
FEATURED BILL: SUPPORT MATERNAL HEALTH / EXTEND MEDICAID COV.
Over fifty percent of births in North Carolina are covered by Medicaid, but pregnancy coverage currently lasts only until 60 days postpartum. A new federal law would allow states to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to one year after delivery, and even provides federal funding to do so.
In order to allow North Carolina women to benefit from this, Rep. Insko introduced the Support Maternal Health / Extend Medicaid Cov. bill, along with her colleagues Reps. Reives, Cunningham, and Cooper-Suggs, this March.
North Carolina currently ranks 30th in the nation in maternal mortality, and black women have a maternal mortality rate nearly two times that of white women in the state.
We need to extend postpartum coverage for women on Medicaid, so that North Carolina mothers and their children can get the care they deserve.