HB454 requires Medicaid to cover doula services before, during, and after childbirth. Coverage must include at least five prenatal visits, three postpartum visits, and labor and birth assistance, each lasting up to 90 minutes. The law also sets qualifications for doulas to receive Medicaid reimbursement, and makes any discriminatory language in Medicaid plans void and unenforceable.
The Louisiana State Senate passed HB454 on June 2, 2025 by a vote of 34 to 2. We have assigned pluses to the nays because neither healthcare nor social welfare is the legitimate object of government. Medicaid, as with many other “entitlement programs,” discriminatorily and unjustly provides “eligible” low-income persons, who have little or no tax liability, with government funds at the expense of other hard-working citizens. Louisiana must reject the use of taxpayer dollars for this ever-expanding and unsustainable federal-state program that is not authorized under Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
