Low-income mother and father and caregivers in Delaware and Tennessee are getting a lifeline to assist curtail one of the frequent medical situations for infants: diaper rash. Each states have acquired federal approval to supply free diapers via their Medicaid applications, in response to federal and state officers.
Underneath TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, mother and father and authorized guardians can choose up as many as 100 diapers a month for youths underneath age 2 at collaborating pharmacies starting in August, Tennessee officers stated.
“For infants and toddlers, a key profit to sufficient diaper provide is stopping diaper dermatitis, in any other case often known as diaper rash, and urinary tract infections,” the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies said final week in an approval letter to Tennessee.
The federal company additionally permitted an identical Medicaid program in Delaware that may present as much as 80 diapers and a pack of child wipes per week to folks for the primary 12 weeks after a toddler is born. CMS stated the state can use Medicaid funding to increase this system for an extra 5 years.
“Entry to enough diapers affords well being advantages to the mother or father, as nicely, as diaper want is related to maternal melancholy and stress,” a spokesperson for the Delaware Well being and Social Companies advised the Related Press in an e-mail.
The price of diapers
An toddler wants as many as a dozen diapers a day, at a value of $80 to $100 or extra a month, in response to the Nationwide Diaper Financial institution Community, an advocacy group. The price of diapers can equate to eight% of somebody’s earnings if they’re incomes the federal minimal wage, the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Companies has famous.
In the meantime, mother and father who shouldn’t have sufficient diapers are unable drop their children off at childcare, hindering their capability to work.
The Tennessee request to the federal company got here from an initiative supported by Gov. Invoice Lee in 2023 that had lawmakers approving $30 million in TennCare funding for the free diapers.
“We’re the primary state within the nation to cowl the price of diapers for moms within the first two years of a kid’s life, and we hope it is a mannequin for others,” Lee, a Republican, stated in a press release on Wednesday.
Tennessee has constructed a observe file through the years for its willingness to reject federal funding for these struggling or who dwell in poverty. The state in January introduced it might rebuff practically $9 million in federal funding to forestall and deal with HIV, with Lee saying Tennessee didn’t wish to cope with the strings hooked up to accepting federal funds.
—The Related Press contributed to this report.
