Arkansas has a Medicaid program that has a few different parts. As far as I can tell, their regular Medicaid program covers women who are pregnant. Arkansas also has a program called “Women’s Health (Family Planning)”.
Medicaid is a public, or government run, form of health insurance. The purpose is to provide individuals and families who are low-income, and who cannot afford to buy a health insurance plan from a private health insurance company, to be able to have access to health care. Medicaid is funded both by the federal government and by the government of an individual state.
Typically, Medicaid has a portion that covers women who are pregnant. In Arkansas, it appears that women who are pregnant may be eligible for full coverage under the regular Medicaid program. Some states have a separate part specifically for women who are pregnant (and who, of course, meet the other eligibility requirements).
The Arkansas website doesn’t give any specific information about what, exactly, will be covered for pregnant women who use Medicaid. This is not surprising, as the Arkansas website only gives minimal information about any of it’s Medicaid programs. The only thing I can find is a page that states:
“If you have a baby while you are on Medicaid, your baby will most likely be able to get Medicaid too.”
Notice that it says “most likely”, and not “your baby will be covered”. It seems that this page is directed towards women who were not pregnant when they first became eligible for Medicaid, and who had a baby while they were covered by Medicaid.
There is a part of the Arkansas Medicaid program that covers women that I was able to find a little bit of information on. It is called “Women’s Health (Family Planning)”. This program is specifically designed to help women to access family planning services.
In order to be eligible for this program, a woman must be able to have children. She cannot be on any other Medicaid program. The program only covers family planning services. This might include: physical exams, lab work, birth control, information about preventing HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, prescriptions for birth control, and follow up visits.
The last bit of information sounds a bit ominous to me. “If you are over age 21, you may be able to get an operation to keep you from getting pregnant”. In other words, the program will cover sterilization. Personally, I think it is really weird that the state of Arkansas is offering to sterilize low-income women who are as young as 21, (and is keeping the information about the portion of Medicaid that covers pregnant women unavailable).
Image by Sarah C on Flickr