Maternal health program comes to Chambers

Published 10:44 am Friday, January 12, 2024

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Chambers County residents are now eligible to take part in the All Babies Program through the Alabama Department of Public Health (APHD). All Babies is free or low-cost full coverage for pregnant women regardless of citizenship.  

“This program is very new and started on June 1 of last year. Right now it’s only offered in 36 counties and Chambers County is one of the counties that it is offered in,” said Angela Swain, an outreach and education coordinator for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. 

There are some requirements for enrollment in the program. The person must be pregnant and reside in an eligible county, which includes Chambers County. The individual must not be covered by or eligible for Medicaid or another comprehensive health coverage. 

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Lastly, the individual must be within the All Babies income and household composition requirements. These requirements are dependent on the monthly income of the household. Depending on family size and income, the individual can get free coverage or coverage that comes with a low fee, and slightly higher fee. The income guidelines can be found at https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/allbabies/

ALL Babies and ALL Kids, the coverage program for children under 19, is administered by Alabama’s Children’s Health Insurance Program within the ADPH. The program uses Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. 

Two key differences between ALL Kids and ALL Babies, according to Swain, is that there are no annual premiums or citizenship requirements for ALL babies. 

The services covered include maternity care, mental health and substance abuse services, prescriptions and vaccinations, dental and vision, emergency services, and two months postpartum and family planning care. The services must be completed through a BCBSAL provider. 

Applications can be completed or printed from the ADPH website. There are also physical application forms that can be mailed in, available at the Chambers County Health and Wellness Center.