Many Tennessee Women Lack Health Insurance, Report Finds

Twelve percent of Tennessee women of child-bearing age do not have health insurance, according to a new report.
It says in states that have expanded Medicaid, women are more likely to be insured, compared with states such as Tennessee, that have not.
Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families released the findings in conjunction with the March of Dimes and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to make Medicaid expansion optional, Tennessee is one of 14 states that has chosen not to expand the program.
Kinika Young, director of children’s health at the Tennessee Justice Center, said health outcomes are closely connected to where women live, adding that black women are still three to four times more likely to die from complications of childbirth than are white women.
“You can have women in a certain part of town that’s predominantly black having poorer birth outcomes than women who are just a few streets away on the same side of town, just based on their neighborhoods and access to care,” said Young. “And frankly, there has to be some element of racism occurring in the health-care system that’s perpetuating these disparities.”
Medicaid expansion states saw a sharp reduction in infant mortality compared with non-expansion states, particularly among African-American infants, according to the report.
Pregnancy-related deaths among U.S. women have increased over the past two-and-a-half decades, despite the fact that the United States spends more dollars on hospital maternity care than any other nation.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said Medicaid expansion could help keep more mothers and babies healthy.
“We are really the only very developed country that’s seeing that, and that’s very troubling,” Alker warned. “For states that have not expanded Medicaid, Medicaid expansion is clearly the single most important step a state could take to address this crisis.”
Tennessee’s rates of maternal and infant deaths are among the highest in the country. The state is ranked 33rd in maternal mortality and 38th in infant mortality, according to a Tennessee Justice Center report released last fall.