Expanded health insurance coverage for pregnant immigrant women who are in the United States lawfully as well as those who are in the country without documentation may address barriers in access to pregnancy-related care. We present new evidence on the impact of states' public health insurance expansions for pregnant immigrant women (both state-funded and expansions under the Children's Health Insurance Program) on their prenatal care use, mode of delivery, and infant health. Our quasi-experimental design compared changes in immigrant women's outcomes in states expanding coverage to changes in outcomes for nonimmigrant women in the same state and to women in nonexpanding states. We found that prenatal care use increased among all immigrant women following coverage expansion and that cesarean section increased among immigrant women with less than a high school diploma. We found no effects on the incidence of low birthweight, preterm birth, being small for gestational age, or infant death. State public insurance programs that cover pregnant immigrant women appear to have improved prenatal care utilization without observable changes in infant health or mortality. © 2017 Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

[No Keywords available]

immigrant prenatal care experimental design health care policy insurance poverty health insurance human Insurance Coverage statistics and numerical data premature labor child health insurance Insurance, Health Children's Health Insurance Program financial management United States Humans migrant Adolescent Infant, Newborn Emigrants and Immigrants female Infant newborn pregnancy child health Article obstetric delivery health care utilization low birth weight Financing, Government adult small for date infant Infant Mortality medicaid public health insurance pregnant woman Infant Health cesarean section Health Services Accessibility child death health care delivery