Indiana University Researchers Focus on Public Health (Health insurance coverage and poverty status of postpartum women in the United States in 2019: an ACS-PUMS population-based cross-sectional study): Health and Medicine – Public Health

Insurance Daily News

2023 NOV 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on public health. According to news reporting from Indiana University by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “A quarter of United States (US) postpartum women still report unmet health care needs and health care unaffordability. We aimed to study associations between receipt of health insurance coverage and poverty status/receipt of government financial support and determine coverage gaps overall and by social factors among US postpartum women in poverty.”

Financial supporters for this research include Riley Children’s Foundation Grant.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Indiana University: “This study design is a cross-sectional study using secondary data. We included women who gave birth within the last 12 months from 2019 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample. Poverty was defined as having an income-to-poverty ratio of less than 100%. We explored Medicaid/government medical assistance gaps among women in poverty. To examine the associations between Medicaid/government medical assistance (exposures) and poverty/government financial support (outcomes), we used age-, race-, and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models. We also evaluated the associations of state, race, citizenship status, or language other than English spoken at home (exposures) with receipt of Medicaid/government medical assistance (outcomes) among women in poverty through multivariable-adjusted logistic regression. It was notable that 35.6% of US postpartum women in poverty did not have Medicaid/government medical assistance and only a small proportion received public assistance income (9.8%)/supplementary security income (3.1%). Women with Medicaid/government medical assistance, compared with those without the coverage, had statistically significantly higher odds of poverty [adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 3.15, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.85-3.48], having public assistance income (aOR: 24.52 [95% CI: 17.31-34.73]), or having supplementary security income (aOR: 4.22 [95% CI: 2.81-6.36]). Also, among postpartum women in poverty, women in states that had not expanded Medicaid, those of Asian or other race, non-US citizens, and those speaking another language had statistically significantly higher odds of not receiving Medicaid/government medical assistance [aORs (95% CIs): 2.93 (2.55-3.37); 1.30 (1.04-1.63); 3.65 (3.05-4.38); and 2.08 (1.86-2.32), respectively].”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Our results showed that the receipt of Medicaid/government medical assistance is significantly associated with poverty and having government financial support. However, postpartum women in poverty still had Medicaid/government medical assistance gaps, especially those who lived in states that had not expanded Medicaid, those of Asian or other races, non-US citizens, and other language speakers.”

For more information on this research see: Health insurance coverage and poverty status of postpartum women in the United States in 2019: an ACS-PUMS population-based cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 2023,23(1):1-12. (BMC Public Health - http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com). The publisher for BMC Public Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-17087-4.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Bojung Seo, Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University. Additional authors for this research include Jack Edward Turman, Hongmei Nan.