Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Medicaid Finds Opportune Time to Offer Birth Control: Right After Birth

The New York Times: COLUMBIA, S.C. — Last month, Akia Gayle gave birth to her third child. Sixteen hours later, while she was still in her hospital bed, a doctor implanted a matchstick-size plastic rod in her left arm because she did not want to have a fourth.

“To have it done right then and there — that’s good,” Ms. Gayle said. “I don’t want more kids.”

Ms. Gayle is one of thousands of women in South Carolina’s Medicaid program who have gotten long-acting contraception at an unusual moment — right after they give birth. The novel policy, which has since been adopted by at least 19 other states, covers long-acting contraception right after birth for women on Medicaid, the government health insurance for low-income Americans. It is intended to help answer one of the most vexing questions in public health: how to reduce unplanned pregnancy in the United States.

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