Medicaid plays a critical role in providing maternity-related services for pregnant women, financing more than 41 percent of all births in the United States. It is also the single largest payer of behavioral health care. Approximately 20 percent of postpartum women experience mental health conditions, including mood disorders such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. These conditions not only affect the mother’s well-being but can also affect the infant’s early development, leading to delays in cognitive and social-emotional growth.
This brief uses data from the Postpartum Assessment of Health Survey to analyze differences in reported health status, access to care, service utilization, and overall health between postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with and without mental health conditions. We also conducted a comparison of individuals with mental health conditions by payer type.
We identified several differences in population characteristics, as well as postpartum health care access and utilization, between postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with and without mental health conditions. Approximately one-third of postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries reported being diagnosed with a mood disorder during the perinatal period, while two-thirds did not report any mental health conditions.
Our findings revealed that both groups experienced high rates of delaying or not receiving needed care 12 to 14 months postpartum, though the reasons differed. Older postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with mental health conditions were significantly more likely to attend a postpartum care visit compared to younger beneficiaries. While most postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with mental health conditions reported similar rates of visit attendance, there were notable differences in the receipt of mental health treatments across racial and ethnic groups.
