Association of Medicaid Expansion in Arkansas With Postpartum Coverage, Outpatient Care, and Racial Disparities.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Non-Hispanic Black individuals are disproportionally covered by Medicaid during pregnancy and, compared with non-Hispanic White individuals, have higher rates of postpartum coverage loss and mortality. Expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act may have increased continuity of coverage and access to care in the critical postpartum period in expansion states.

Objective

To examine the association of Medicaid expansion in Arkansas with continuous postpartum coverage, postpartum health care use, and change in racial disparities in the study outcomes.

Design setting and participants

This cohort study with a difference-in-differences analysis compared persons with Medicaid and commercially financed childbirth, stratified by race, using Arkansas' All

SUBMITTER: Steenland MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8796925 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature