Health Affairs May 7, 2024
The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized country, and it has increased in recent years. Other more common negative maternal health outcomes such as severe maternal morbidity are also on the rise. Improving the quality of perinatal care to address these poor maternal health outcomes is a pressing policy concern. More than 40 percent of births in the US each year are covered by Medicaid (exhibit 1), including 64 percent of births to Black birthing people, making changes to federal Medicaid policy or state Medicaid programs potential policy levers for addressing maternal health and maternal health equity.
Exhibit 1: Percentage of births covered by Medicaid in the US and Massachusetts, 2016–21
Source: Authors’ analysis of...
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