![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/grview-66571-1.jpg\")
Failure to expand Medicaid in Florida means the Sunshine State has one of the highest uninsured rates for women of child-bearing age, according to\u00a0a new report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It says Medicaid expansion is helping to fill gaps in maternal health coverage, which experts say leads to healthier mothers and babies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Alison Yager, director of policy advocacy for the Florida Health Justice Project<\/a>, points out that growing numbers of women of reproductive age \u2013 between 18 and 44 \u2013 are unable to take care of themselves prior to pregnancy and a couple months after birth, when they typically lose gap coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “And that means again that these women \u2013 who are now at this vulnerable time in life where they are taking care of a new baby \u2013 are unable to take care of themselves because they’ve lost their connections to care and, again, any chronic conditions,” Yager stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The uninsured rate for these women is 19% in Florida, compared with the 9% average in states that have expanded Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics of expansion say they are concerned about increased costs under the the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report found that states that expanded Medicaid coverage have sharply lower rates of uninsured women of child-bearing age, which has contributed to reduced infant deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, says steady, uninterrupted coverage makes a difference for healthy birth outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Things like maternal-depression screening and treatment, treatment for substance-use disorders, smoking cessation \u2013 all of those are benefits that Medicaid can and does cover,” said Alker. “So, those are likely to have really positive, two-generational impacts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers found that Medicaid expansion improved maternal health outcomes by increasing access to preventive care, and also reduced adverse health outcomes before, during and after pregnancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n States that expanded Medicaid also saw a 50% greater reduction in infant mortality rates, compared with states that have not expanded coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report was released in conjunction with the March of Dimes<\/a> and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists<\/a>.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Trimmel Gomes, Public News Service (FL) Failure to expand Medicaid in Florida means the Sunshine State has one of the highest uninsured rates for women of child-bearing age, according… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}