Medicaid: a critical source of support for family planning in the United States.

Medicaid is now the nation’s largest health care program and the largest source of federal support to states. Medicaid expenditures comprise approximately 17% of all state spending. With so many dollars at stake Medicaid’s future has been the subject of widespread debate. Over the last few years many states confronting serious budget shortfalls have cut back on Medicaid eligibility and services in a variety of ways; a recent study found that all 50 states implemented Medicaid cost-control strategies in 2004 and planned additional action in 2005.1 Similarly at the federal level cuts in Medicaid spending and major program restructuring have been proposed and are under consideration. Together these developments underscore the importance of understanding the role of Medicaid to the provision of publicly funded family planning services and especially for the individuals who need this preventive health care. This Issue Brief reviews: the extent to which women of reproductive reviews: the extent to which women of reproductive age rely on Medicaid for their care; the special status that family planning has long had under Medicaid; the range of services covered under the rubric of family planning; the 21 state-initiated Medicaid family planning expansions that have extended eligibility for Medicaid-funded family planning to millions of men and women who otherwise would not be covered; and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of subsidized family planning in reducing unintended pregnancies and births as well as abortions especially among teenagers and unmarried women. (excerpt)