This report on births to mothers with HUSKY and Medicaid health coverage finds:
- Birth trends: The proportion of births covered by the HUSKY Program and fee-for-service (FFS) Medicaid continues to increase, from 26.8 percent in 2000 to 38.3 percent of all births in Connecticut in 2008.
- Teen births: Over 85 percent of all births to Connecticut teens in 2008 were births to young mothers with HUSKY Program or FFS Medicaid.
- Prenatal care: Mothers who had HUSKY Program or Medicaid coverage were not as likely as other mothers without publicly funded care to have had early prenatal care (prenatal care that began in the first trimester of pregnancy).
- Smoking in pregnancy: Since monitoring by coverage type began, the smoking rate among mothers with HUSKY Program coverage has declined steadily. However, the rate (11.2%) is over five times higher than the smoking rate for other mothers in Connecticut (1.9%).
- Birth outcomes: The rates for preterm births (prior to 37 weeks gestation) to mothers with HUSKY Program (11.3%) or FFS Medicaid coverage (13.0%) were higher than the rate for births to other mothers (10.3%) in 2008. Rates for all groups were higher than in 2007. The low birthweight rates were higher for babies born to mothers with HUSKY Program coverage (9.0%) and mothers with FFS Medicaid coverage (9.6%) than the rate for births to other mothers (7.2%).
