Medicaid Expansion Promotes Children’s Development and Family Success by Treating Maternal Depression
More than half of poor infants in America have a mother who is experiencing maternal depression and more than a third of these women do not receive any treatment, according to a report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Medicaid Expansion Promotes Children’s Development and Family Success by Treating Maternal Depression finds that the Medicaid eligibility expansions in the Affordable Care Act indirectly benefit children by promoting healthy family relationships that largely depend on the emotional and physical health of parents. The report finds that deeper levels of poverty are associated with higher rates of maternal depression, a trend that is more prevalent in states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage.