For fifty years, Medicaid has provided low-income women with essential health insurance coverage. Medicaid covers a comprehensive range of services – birth control, maternity care, prescription drugs, hospitalization, long-term care, and more – that addresses women’s major health needs throughout their lives. A growing body of research has demonstrated how important Medicaid coverage is to enrollees’ access to care, overall health, and mortality rates.

 

At the same time, Medicaid has played a critically important role in advancing women’s economic security. By providing health coverage to women and their families that is not tied to employment, Medicaid allows women to seek positions that may offer higher wages or better opportunities, and it also has improved the economic security of future generations. Medicaid’s coverage of birth control allows women to determine whether and when to start a family, expanding their educational and career opportunities. And Medicaid payments to health care providers directly support women’s jobs.