“Compared to states without insurance restrictions, immigrants in states with public insurance restrictions for postpartum immigrants are less likely to receive postpartum care,” write Maria W. Steenland of Brown University, Laura R. Wherry of New York University, Rachel Fabi at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and their colleagues. Hence, “Restricting public insurance coverage may be an important policy-driven barrier to receipt of recommended pregnancy care and improved maternal health among immigrants.”

The new study looks at data on 19 states and New York City and a total of 72,981 low-income women who gave birth between 2012 and 2019. Of the states examined by the researchers, 10 offer coverage for recently documented but not undocumented immigrants, and four offer no coverage to either immigrant group. The 10 states with coverage for recently documented but not undocumented immigrants that were included in the study were Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The four states with no coverage for either immigrant group were Alaska, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Utah.

In the opinion expressed by major professional associations for physicians and medical students, postpartum care is necessary to provide diagnosis and treatment of postpartum health concerns and ensure the health and wellbeing of postpartum individuals. An additional six states the researchers examined—Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island—offered coverage for postpartum care for both recently-documented and undocumented immigrants.

Read the full article about immigrants' health postpartum by Robert Polner at Futurity.