Senators explain support for pre-natal bill

(Speaker Mike Flood )

Five state senators, including Speaker Mike Flood, stopped in Scottsbluff Thursday morning to drum up support for L.B. 599, legislation that restores prenatal care for low income women who lost prenatal Medicaid coverage in 2010. Governor Dave Heineman has promised to veto the bill because it would include undocumented mothers.

Flood says the lawmakers are traveling the state to explain why the bill was passed by lawmakers and the fact that it is about more than just the illegal immigration issue. Flood says it was also about right to life and the fact the babies being born from undocumented mothers are Nebraska citizens. Flood also said the fact the legislation is restoring money for legal low income women without insurance is being lost in the discussion.

Dr. David Holdt from Regional West Medical Center's Womens Center, joined the senators in support of the bill, emphasizing the importance of prenatal care in saving money spent on pre-mature babies and other health issues later in the child's life.

All five senators, which included Education committee Chair Greg Adams, Ag Committee Chair Tom Carlson, Health and Human Services Committee Chair Kathy Campbell, and Mike Gloor, vice chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, emphasized they thought about their vote a long time before deciding supporting the legislation was the right thing to do.

Flood believes the 31 yes votes, one over the 30 needed to override a veto, are solid.

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