Illinois Congresswoman Lauren Underwood talks her health care legislation, ‘Momnibus Act’ with WCPT’s Patti Vasquez

Last week, Illinois Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D) joined WCPT’s Patti Vasquez for a conversation about her signature health care legislation.

She introduced the Health Care Affordability Act, a bill to lower the cost of health care premiums, and the Momnibus Act that she introduced with other members of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, which she co-chairs. A comprehensive package of 13 individual bills, the Momnibus Act “takes action through historic investments that address every driver of maternal mortality, morbidity, and disparities in the United States,” according to the Black Maternal Health Caucus website. First introduced in 2020, the package has yet to pass through Congress, though parts of it have been signed into law.

Underwood has represented Illinois’ 14^th Congressional District since 2019, after she defeated four-term Republican incumbent Randy Hultgren in the 2018 midterm election. A registered nurse and former senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, Underwood campaigned on improving the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a year when Democrats regained the House majority after Republicans, including Hultgren, had tried and failed to repeal and replace the ACA. In 2024, she faces a challenge from Republican business owner and entrepreneur James Marter.

Below is the full transcript of the interview. (Please note: The transcript has been edited for clarity.)

Patti Vasquez: Hello, Congresswoman. How are you doing today?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Hi, Patti. I’m so happy to be here with you.

Patti Vasquez: First of all, let me just talk about what’s at the top of the news, which is, how are you feeling about this election right now? We want to talk about health care and some of the work that you’re doing. Do you want to talk more about the health care? We can do that, if you’d like.

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Well, we’re less than a week from the election at this point. I think the Democrats have incredible momentum here in northern Illinois, across the country. Vice President Harris has been running an incredible campaign and I’m looking forward to closing out this final stretch and seeing all of our fellow Americans go out and vote.

Patti Vasquez: Yes, I love it! Well, we’ll talk a little bit more about that if we have time, because I have said this over and over again: When I ran for state rep in 2020 and what I’ve been ringing the alarm bell for a while is that the crisis of our generation is health care. That’s really what I believe. I know we can talk about a lot of other things. But if you cannot afford to care for yourself or others, if you are worried about losing your home because you have an illness — we are not a healthy country, are we?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: No. And just today it’s in the news that Speaker Mike Johnson has this pact, agreement with Donald Trump to repeal the Affordable Care Act and enact what they’re calling major changes. You know what I hear? Alarm bells. When these guys start talking away, taking away our health care, we know it is bad news, and we have to vote like our lives depend on it.

Patti Vasquez: We absolutely do because, after all, Trump has a “concept” of a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Where do we even begin with that? He was in office for four years. It’s been nine years since he told us we were going to replace it with something beautiful. Have the Republicans had any answer for how to address this major crisis?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Well, you might remember 2017, when the House passed a repeal bill that my opponent — the guy I beat, Randy Hultgren — voted for. That’s why I jumped in and ran for Congress the first time. They had a big celebration on the White House lawn. And then it took John McCain stepping forward to save us, right? Like, I remember that. And since then, the American people have had it, and the Affordable Care Act has been more popular than ever.

I wrote the first bill to help improve, to fix some of the challenges with the ACA to [make it more] affordable for people. It’s called the Health Care Affordability Act and it says that no American should pay more than 8.5% of their income for silver-level marketplace plans. So that’s like the good coverage that people want. And these tax credits have been so popular; 21 million Americans enrolled in coverage last year. Four out of five people can find a plan for $10 or less a month, and we’ve had the lowest number of uninsured Americans in history, thanks to my bill. And so, when I hear these MAGA extremists talking about undoing this progress that we’ve made, I get really worried.

Patti Vasquez: As we all should be.

So tell us, is it hard to think past Tuesday right now with all these — because you obviously have to do all of the work, with the focus in mind that we’re going to accomplish this. But so much hinges on Tuesday, doesn’t it?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: It does, because we know that there is such a stark difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Kamala Harris is offering a new way forward. She’s talking about an opportunity economy for all Americans. She understands the need to protect health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions, and she’s embraced this legislation that I wrote and is working in partnership to make these tax credits permanent. Donald Trump supports the dangerous Project 2025 plan that seeks to repeal the ACA, that seeks to ban contraception, ban abortion nationwide, women access to fertility services like IVF. These guys, they want to control us. They want to control every aspect of our lives. And so, I think we can’t let them win.

Patti Vasquez: No, we cannot. And so with the work that you have done and helping Americans save money, with the Health Care Affordability Act and permanently lowering health care costs, what can folks do [and] what should we be paying attention to and calling our electeds and demanding more, because we have a lot of listeners that live in red areas; we also have folks that need to know what’s being done at the federal level. What do you want to share with them?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: That they should reach out to their congresspeople and ask them to co-sponsor the Health Care Affordability Act of 2024, and they can call the senators and ask them to support this bill as well. We’re going to have a big tax fight next year in 2025 because, Patti, I know you remember the tax scam when Donald Trump passed this big tax bill that gave all the benefits to the billionaires and the corporate tax cheats. Well, those provisions are going to be expiring next year, and so we have to put forward tax reform that puts working families and small businesses first. And these health care tax credits will be a big part of that fight, along with the child tax credit, and all these other programs that are so important to families across our community.

Patti Vasquez: I know that folks are not going to be surprised that in many of the states where they have now banned abortion care and reproductive rights, maternal health is something that has become absolutely drastically impacted. But in Illinois, we have rural areas where women have to drive an hour to an hour and a half for prenatal care and for childbirth services. We also have urban areas. Black women are often more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. What kind of work are you doing? I know that you have- is it the Momnibus?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: That’s right. So I co-founded and co-chair the Black Maternal Health Caucus that has a really clear purpose of ending our nation’s maternal health crisis, and elevating solutions to get rid of the disparities that we see where Black moms and rural moms and Native American moms are more likely to die of these preventable causes. Eighty percent of the deaths in our country are preventable, and I think in 2024 we can all stand together and say that should not happen. And so I teamed up with then-Senator Kamala Harris, back in 2020, to introduce the first version of the Momnibus. Now, that’s a big word and it combines the legislative word omnibus, which means package of bills, for moms. That’s how we get Momnibus. And now it’s 13 bills in one designed to address every clinical and nonclinical factor contributing to preventable maternal deaths in our country.

Patti Vasquez: OK, that’s remarkable. How are you doing with getting other legislators involved in this? Because one of the things that I’ve talked about — so I used to work in communications for big corporations and my job was basically to get people to these meetings and tell them about different companies that were providing services, whether it was surgical — one of them was for endometriosis. And one of the things that was really hard for me was most of the fields of finance and investment is men, and they were icked out by it, right? So I’ve always wondered about this, because women’s health — like, the Pap smear has been done in the exact same way since 1927, and I think that part of this is because men have been in power, politically and financially. I know that you need to have a collaboration and sort of a coalition of people. How is it coming along with convincing dudes in power to collaborate with you on this?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: It’s been really interesting. The Black Maternal Health Caucus is one of the largest bipartisan caucuses on Capitol Hill. And it’s not just women. We have a lot of male members who believe that moms shouldn’t be dying of childbirth or pregnancy-related complications. And they all have really deeply personal reasons for joining our caucus. Some of them choose to share why they’re part of it. Some of them are just allies and supporters, and we’re grateful that they’re supporting our legislation. But it’s been a really inclusive effort. We have a Dads Caucus on Capitol Hill, and the dads have now endorsed the Momnibus, and we’ve done joint events. There’s been a group of fathers who advocate on Capitol Hill together because they’ve lost their wives, partners, girlfriends due to a maternal health crisis. These women have died, and they are reaching out to lawmakers asking for the passage of the Momnibus. And so, we have a really inclusive, diverse coalition, and we also talk about how this crisis touches every zip code in this country. It impacts all of us. This is not a bill just for Black moms or just for certain people. No, no, no. This is a bill that improves the quality of care for everybody. And I think that men are big part of the solution.

Patti Vasquez: That’s fantastic because culturally, or even in the media, we have this idea of moms, and they’re doing it all, and part of it that pressure is it takes its toll mentally. But physically — it’s still hard to say this, that we have higher maternal mortality rates than other higher-income countries. It’s astounding to me. And we have the tools at our disposal, including things that we learned during the pandemic: having digital access, so for folks who can’t make it to a consult by Zoom works very well, and that’s included in this Momnibus, isn’t it?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Right. So there is some telehealth components, but what’s been really innovative are things like remote blood pressure monitoring, so the cuffs that connect to your cell phone and then your provider is able to monitor your blood pressure, because we know that preeclampsia is really challenging. But the leading cause of preventable maternal death in our country is maternal mental health, because when you combine substance use like overdoses, and suicide, those are killing more moms than anything else. And so, when we have tools in our phones that help a mom in crisis access help right away, that literally saves lives. So working with the vice president, Kamala Harris, there’s a new maternal mental health hotline, 1-833-TLC-MAMA, and when moms call that line they get connected with a provider right away. You’re not getting through like a bunch of different prompts and referral numbers and all this other stuff. No, no, no. You’re getting help right away. But there’s other ways that our legislation can expand access to that mental health support as well. And that’s a bipartisan bill in our package. So, when I talk about these kind of common-sense, bipartisan solutions, that’s what’s in our legislation.

Patti Vasquez: That’s fantastic. Where are you in the process? When would this possibly be introduced? Has it made it through all the different layers of collaboration and writing the bill? Where are we, as far as taking it to the floor?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: So we are approaching what we call dealmaking season, Patti. Some people call it lame duck, but after the election, policymakers get a little incentive to get some things done. And so, we are working hard to get the Momnibus attached to other bills that will be moving to the floor.

As you know, as Democrats, we are not currently in the majority, but next Tuesday — (laughs) — we might be back in the majority, if we win all these races. And so, we have to work with our Republican colleagues to get floor time, and so we’re working hard to do that before the end of this calendar year.

Patti Vasquez: Outstanding. And again, I encourage folks to reach out to your legislators. I’m trying to find a best way for folks. You can go to usa.gov, folks, if you’re not sure who your electeds are, because as much as our listeners are fantastic, sometimes things get past us or we don’t realize we can actually make an impact. What is it like when somebody reaches out and you have an overwhelming amount of people saying, hey, this is really important to me? How does that impact your approach to legislation?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: When I hear from my constituents, I pay close attention. It is so valuable to hear from the people in our community about the issues that are most important to them and as they tell their stories. Storytelling is so important. It helps us connect on our shared humanity, our shared experiences. And we want to help improve your life. We want to support your family. We want to support your business and allow for more opportunities for all of us. And so, I really am grateful when people take the time to reach out, whether it’s a phone call, whether it’s an email or whether they’re handwriting a letter, because some people still do that. (Laughs.) It’s just really important to get that kind of feedback.

Patti Vasquez: And what’s your preferred website for folks to learn more about you and learn about your mission, the work that you do?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Well, since we are in campaign season, Patti, they can find us at underwoodforcongress.com. Underwoodforcongress.com.

Patti Vasquez: Excellent. And I have another question for you: What are your plans for watching the election night returns?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Well, I think we’re going to have a little party, as one does, so people can follow me online at Lauren Underwood to get all the details for our election night gathering. But we have a lot of work to do before we party, Patti, so this is what I say: If you haven’t done a shift knocking doors, if you haven’t made phone calls to voters, if you haven’t texted people reminding them to go vote and vote early, like get it done today, get it done tomorrow, like, you really have some work to do before we start making Election Night plans.

Patti Vasquez: Well, I’m really grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you about the work that you’re doing.

And we’ve been talking to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. You can go to underwoodforcongress.com to learn more about her campaign and the work that she does.

We’d love to talk to you again soon. Maybe we check in with you on Election Night, just to see how we’re doing that night. If we reach out, would that sound good?

Rep. Lauren Underwood: Sounds good. Thanks, Patti.