Mary Alice Lee, PhD, Karen Sautter, MPH, and Amanda Learned, BA

More than one in three births in the state in 2007 was to a mother enrolled in HUSKY A (Medicaid managed care) or fee-for-service Medicaid. This report finds that:

• The percentage of births to teens in the HUSKY Program has declined steadily since reporting began; however, the number of births has not declined and the percentage of births to mothers 19 and under was considerably higher for mothers with HUSKY Program coverage than the rate for all other mothers.
• Mothers who had HUSKY Program or Medicaid coverage were less likely than other mothers to have had early prenatal care (77.4% and 67.4% respectively, compared with 90.3% of other mothers).
• The smoking rate among mothers with HUSKY Program coverage has declined steadily. However, the rate (12.6%) is nearly six times higher than the smoking rate for other mothers in Connecticut (2.2%). Moreover, babies born to mothers with HUSKY Program coverage who smoked were more likely to be born preterm or low birthweight.
• The percentage of preterm births to mothers with HUSKY Program (10.3%) or FFS Medicaid coverage (12.2%) was higher than the rate for births to other mothers (9.6%) in 2007.

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