News Releases

CMS Releases Infographic Highlighting Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Beneficiaries

According to an infographic recently released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), 41% of U.S. births were paid for by Medicaid in 2021 and 26% of the 92.1 million Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries were ages 15 to 49. The infographic, which draws attention to maternal and infant health disparities, goes on to provide an overview of Medicaid and CHIP, including demographics, access to care, health status, health outcomes, risk factors, and healthcare utilization among beneficiaries seeking pregnancy-related care and those with a recent live birth.

Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

Defined as unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant consequences to the mother’s health, severe maternal morbidity (SMM) has been steadily increasing in recent years, along with the rate of maternal deaths. SMM is affecting Black non-Hispanic/Latino mothers at a much higher rate, indicating disparities by race and ethnicity.

As the graph indicates, the U.S. mortality rate per 100,000 live births was 69.9 for Black non-Hispanic/Latino mothers in 2021, compared with 28.0 for Hispanics/Latino mothers and 26.6 for White non-Hispanic/Latino mothers.

Other key findings include:

• Of the available data from 39 states and D.C., there were 43,600 Medicaid and CHIP deliveries with a SMM condition in 2021.
• The top three underlying causes of pregnancy related deaths in 36 states between 2017 and 2019 were: behavioral health conditions, 22.7%; hemorrhage, 13.7%; and cardiac and coronary conditions, 12.8%.

Behavioral Health and Substance Use

According to all-payer data from 36 states, the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths from 2017 to 2019 was behavioral health conditions, including substance use disorders.

The graph below shows the percentage of female Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries ages 18-49 who reported receiving behavioral health treatment in 2021: