Women who begin their pregnancies in poor health are more likely to have negative birth outcomes than healthy women, according to a paper released by the National Governors Association.
Improving Birth Outcomes in Medicaid explores the pivotal role states play in advancing a life-course approach to improving birth outcomes, and state Medicaid policy is particularly important for ensuring the reach and sustainability of these efforts. Medicaid pays for a large proportion of births although variation exists among states.
The paper identifies a variety of synergistic, multi-state initiatives that have been launched at the national and regional levels to facilitate state efforts.
