The impact of legislation designed to reduce infant mortality

In response to the slowing improvement in the nation's infant mortality rate in the mid-1980s, Congress passed a series of bills aimed at increasing women's access to prenatal care and enhancing available services through the Medicaid program. Other programs also received increased appropriations targeted at infant mortality reduction. Since then, dramatic changes have been made in state Medicaid and maternal and child health programs. Only a few evaluations of these initiatives have been completed, and the preliminary results seem to show that although Medicaid eligibility expansions improved access to appropriate prenatal care, enhanced services are needed to improve birth outcomes.