Medicaid Support for Family Planning in the Managed Care Era

Publication Date: August 2001

Publisher: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

Author(s):

Research Area: Health; Population and demographics

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

As the largest source of public funding for contraceptive care in the United States, Medicaid plays a crucial role in financing family planning services and supplies for millions of low-income women across the nation. In the past 15 years, managed care has become the primary way of delivering care to children and adults on Medicaid, a development which has had significant implications for how family planning services are financed, organized and delivered under Medicaid.

This report, Medicaid Support for Family Planning in the Managed Care Era, prepared by Rachel Benson Gold and Cory L. Richards of The Alan Guttmacher Institute for the Kaiser Family Foundation, provides an overview of Medicaid coverage of family planning services, examines the effects of Medicaid managed care on the provision of these services, and discusses how the 1997 Balanced Budget Act can shape the delivery of family planning services under Medicaid managed care to improve access to these services for low-income women.