$100 million Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America announces grants to Arkansas, Kentucky
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left) talks with Olivia Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas, last week. Photo: Michael Connor for Heartland Forward/Heartland Summit
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Olivia Walton, who's leading a $100 million, bipartisan effort to cut the U.S. maternal mortality rate in half by 2031, tells me maternal health is a solvable problem, with state governments "in the driver's seat."
- "We have the medicine," Walton, who's also chair of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, told me last week on the sidelines of the annual Heartland Summit of the nonprofit Heartland Forward, which promotes economic development in America's geographic middle.
- "We know what works. There are poorer and more rural countries around the world that are doing this better than we are. We also have pockets of what's working here in the United States."
Why it matters: Walton and her husband, Tom Walton, a Walmart heir, last month announced an initial $100 million, five-year commitment to Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America (HMHBA) to fund state matching grants, partnerships and infrastructure to scale successful maternal health practices.
Driving the news: At the summit, Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies announced its first state grants — $10 million each to Arkansas and Kentucky over five years "to accelerate proven approaches to maternal care."
- Arkansas is led by a Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kentucky by a Democrat, Andy Beshear.
What they're saying: Sanders told me around a table with Olivia Walton that Arkansas "had over 1,100 women who were never seeing a doctor until they were in labor. ... And so, if they're not doing it before, they're probably not doing much after either."
- "We started a statewide campaign called Claim Your Care, raising awareness, helping get more and more women. We've seen a significant uptick in women taking advantage of the program since we started the campaign. So we feel like we're moving in the right direction."
- Sanders said in the announcement: "The best maternal health policy is one that reaches moms before there's a crisis."
Sanders said in the announcement: "The best maternal health policy is one that reaches moms before there's a crisis."
Beshear said that in Kentucky, he's focused on expanding health care access and coverage, especially in rural communities. "I believe health care is a basic human right," he said.
- "This $10 million commitment will help us build on the progress we've made by advancing postpartum and prenatal care for new and expecting mothers. Now we can make sure moms and babies receive the quality care they deserve, right in their own community."
