What is the Medicaid Family Planning Waiver?
The state of New Mexico requested a section 1115(a) Waiver to extend Medicaid eligibility for family planning services to all women of childbearing age with income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. The provision of family planning services for post-partum women and other women of childbearing age is expected to reduce the number of low birth weight infants, premature deliveries, and infant or maternal deaths attributed to unintended, mistimed and/or closely spaced pregnancies among women whose poverty status reduces their access to health services. Reducing unintended pregnancies and improving birth spacing will decrease the overall number of births supported by Medicaid funding. In 1993, the New Mexico legislature approved the Human Services Department’s request to extend Medicaid coverage for “basic” family planning services to women on a statewide basis. The Family Planning waiver started out as a 5-year demonstration project, which extends Medicaid eligibility f
