Clinicians and advocates ask committee to codify earlier cash assistance for pregnant people

Clinicians, advocates and legislators asked the committee to report favorably on H.272 / S.171, bills to protect and codify expanded access to cash assistance for pregnant people.

Betsy Quinn of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute told the committee that the FY26 budget removed a thirty-year restriction that limited TFDC cash assistance to the third trimester; under the new budget language, cash assistance is available at any point in pregnancy once pregnancy is medically verified. Quinn and Representative Sam Montaf1o said the bill would make that change statutory rather than leaving it to an annual budget decision.

Witnesses urged removing a requirement that pregnancy be medically verified at application time because many people cannot secure a prenatal appointment immediately after learning they are pregnant. They said MassHealth and WIC provide models for allowing benefits or services to start upon self-attestation with verification to follow; H.272 / S.171 would align TFDC with those models and allow pregnant people on very low incomes to access benefits while awaiting a first prenatal visit.

Clinician testimony emphasized racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality. Dr. Therese Hamblin, an OB-GYN and medical director of a doula program, told the committee that Black women in Massachusetts are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy or within a year after giving birth compared to white women and that early access to cash assistance supports prenatal engagement and better outcomes.

Sponsors and witnesses asked the committee to report the bills favorably to make eligibility changes permanent and to ease verification requirements so women can obtain assistance earlier in pregnancy.