Impacts of Medicaid Expansion Before Conception on Prepregnancy Health, Pregnancy Health, and Outcomes

We examined associations between preconception exposure to Medicaid expansion and measures of prepregnancy health, pregnancy health, and pregnancy outcomes using a difference-in-differences empirical approach. Increased Medicaid eligibility was not associated with improvements in prepregnancy or pregnancy health measures and did not reduce the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes (e.g., prevalence of preterm birth increased by 0.1 percentage point (95% confidence interval: −0.2, 0.3)). Increasing Medicaid eligibility alon e may be insufficient to improve prepregnancy or pregnancy health and birth outcomes. Preconception programming in combination with attention to other structural determinants of pregnancy health is needed.
Source: American Journal of Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research