Subsidized Contraception, Fertility, and Sexual Behavior
Kearney, M.S.; Levine, P.B.
Review of Economics and Statistics 91(1): 137
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 0034-6535 PMID: 20130787 DOI: 10.1162/rest.91.1.137Document Number: 209235
We examine the impact of recent state-level Medicaid policy changes that expanded eligibility for family planning services to higher-income women and to Medicaid clients whose benefits would expire otherwise. We show that the income-based policy change reduced overall births to non-teens by about 2% and to teens by over 4%; estimates suggest a decline of 9% among newly eligible women. The reduction in fertility appears to have been accomplished via greater use of contraception. Our calculations indicate that allowing higher-income women to receive federally funded family planning cost on the order of $6,800 for each averted birth.