Expanding US Medicaid improves birth outcomes in black babies

Expanding Medicaid insurance to improve continuity of care for women in lower income families led to better outcomes for black infants, bringing their rates of low birthweight and preterm birth closer to those seen in white babies, a study published in JAMA shows.1

Researchers in the US compared states that had rolled out the optional Medicaid expansion with those that had not, looking at 15.6 million births from 2011 to 2016. They found that, although the expansion was not linked to improvements in rates …