House bill expands nurse-family visitation

President Barack Obama has supported programs that send nurses to the homes of pregnant women in low-income families to teach parents, especially mothers, how to better prepare for birth and to care for their newborns.

With health reform under consideration in Congress, nurse-family visits have gotten more attention. A bill in the House of Representatives allows these programs, referred to as Nurse Home Visitations Services, to be paid for through Medicaid.  The visits would send trained nurses to families with a first?time pregnant woman or child under 2 eligible for Medicaid.

The measure still needs to move from proposal to enacted law. For now, we rate this promise In the Works