Margerison et al. Respond to “Medicaid Policy and Reproductive Autonomy”

Expansion of Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act has increased the percentage of reproductive-age women who report having health insurance by at least 9 percentage points overall, with higher increases among women without dependent children (1,2). Yet, in our study (3), we found that expanded Medicaid eligibility during the year prior to conception was not associated with improvements in prepregnancy or pregnancy health and did not reduce the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes. These “null” findings are consistent with prior reports that expansion of Medicaid to womenduring pregnancy also did not reduce the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes (4,5).
Source: American Journal of Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research