Mississippi ranks worst for infant mortality, with Black infants nearly twice as likely as white ones to die over the past decade
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi could allow Medicaid coverage earlier in pregnancy in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of
About 41% of births in the U.S. and 57% in Mississippi were financed by Medicaid in 2022, according to the health policy research group KFF. Only Louisiana had a larger share of births covered by Medicaid that year, at 61%.
In 2023, Mississippi extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year, with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves saying the change was part of a “new pro-life agenda” to help mothers in a state where abortion is tightly restricted.
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The post Babies, especially Black infants, die too often in Mississippi. The state’s trying to change that. appeared first on TheGrio.
