Excerpt from: Lansing State Journal (click for full article)
A proposed statewide expansion of Medicaid could bolster recent efforts to lower infant mortality rates in Ingham County, a new report concludes.
By providing healthcare for low-income women before pregnancy, the proposed Medicaid expansion beginning next year would give more babies a healthier start at birth, according to the report by the Michigan League for Public Policy.
Low-income women without children now only become eligible for Medicaid when they become pregnant.
“It’s absolutely a policy decision that will position both primary care and public health professionals to go after the root causes of infant mortality,” Ingham County Health Officer Renee Canady said.
Historically, Ingham County has ranked in the bottom half of 83 Michigan counties in infant mortality with an average annual rate of 6.3 deaths per thousand between 2006 and 2010, according to state officials. But the rate for black infants is much worse at 17.1 deaths per thousand annually on average.
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