Mary Alice Lee, Ph.D., and Michael Sullivan

To help ensure that HUSKY members are getting the services they need and that state dollars are being spent wisely, Connecticut Voices for Children monitors the health care services that children enrolled in HUSKY A (Medicaid managed care) are receiving. This brief summarizes several recent studies on a variety of health issues. In 2007, just 54% of children ages 2 to 9 received well-child care, down from 65% the previous year. (Problems with data quality may account for at least part of the decrease.) Less than half (49%) of the children ages 3 to 19 had preventive dental care. Among mothers in HUSKY A, 14% smoked during pregnancy, compared with just 2% of other mothers. Among HUSKY A mothers, the low birthweight rate for mothers who smoked was over one-third higher than the rate for non-smoking mothers. While Medicaid programs in 41 states and the District of Columbia covered at least some smoking cessation services for all Medicaid recipients in 2005, Connecticut does not. (March 2009)

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