Murkowski's bill would extend a rural maternity program Alaska never used

Alaska has never received a grant from the federal rural obstetric program that Sen. Lisa Murkowski is trying to keep running.

Federal award records show 24 grants under the Rural Maternity and Obstetric Management Strategies Program, known as RMOMS, since it began in 2019, spread across about 20 states. None went to an Alaska recipient.

Murkowski and Sen. Tim Kaine introduced a bill Tuesday that would require the Health Resources and Services Administration to continue the program, which pays rural providers to coordinate obstetric care and to use telehealth for higher-risk pregnancies in isolated places. Providers serving rural, frontier or medically underserved areas can apply, as can tribes and tribal organizations.

"Whether you're in Napakiak or New York City, every mother and child deserves access to quality care, and the programs implemented through this bill will help bring us closer to that goal," Murkowski said.

The bill would authorize $12 million a year for the rural program from 2027 through 2029, part of about $122 million in its first year across five authorizations, most of it for state maternal health plans and a research network at the National Institutes of Health.

The senators cited a 2024 U.S. maternal mortality rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, against an average of 10.3 among developed peer nations, and a rate for Black women of 44.8.

Alaska's own figures are old. A state review of pregnancy-related deaths from 2000 to 2011 found 22 per 100,000 live births among Alaska Native women and six among non-Native women. That period ended 15 years ago.

Kaine has introduced this bill three times before, in 2020, 2021 and 2023, with Murkowski as his only cosponsor each time. Each version died in committee.