Uninsured New Mothers’ Health and Health Care Challenges Highlight the Benefits of Increasing Postpartum Medicaid Coverage

This report documents access and affordability challenges facing uninsured new mothers using 2015–18 data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). It also uses 2015–17 data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS) to describe the health status of women who lost Medicaid coverage following their pregnancies.

The analysis provides new evidence on the access and affordability barriers that could be reduced and the health problems that could be treated if these uninsured new mothers were to gain coverage through a postpartum Medicaid extension or broader Medicaid expansion.