Breastfeeding and the Affordable Care Act

Summer Sherburne Hawkins; Sarah Dow-Fleisner; Alice Noble

doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2015.05.002

Breastfeeding and the Affordable Care Act

Pediatr Clin North Am. 2015 Oct;62(5):1071-91. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2015.05.002. Epub 2015 Jul 10.

Authors

Summer Sherburne Hawkins¹, Sarah Dow-Fleisner², Alice Noble³

Affiliations

¹ Boston College, School of Social Work, McGuinn Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. Electronic address: summer.hawkins@bc.edu.
² Boston College, School of Social Work, McGuinn Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
³ Boston College, Law School, 885 Centre Street, Newton Centre, MA 02459, USA.

Abstract

Mothers who receive or qualify for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program or have lower income are less likely to start and continue breastfeeding than their more advantaged counterparts. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers to provide break time and space to express breast milk and requires insurance companies to cover breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling at no cost to mothers. This ACA benefit does not extend to all Medicaid recipients or women in the WIC program. Legislative and regulatory efforts are needed to provide comprehensive coverage for all women and reduce disparities in breastfeeding.

Keywords: Affordable Care Act; Breastfeeding; Medicaid; Preventative care; WIC.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Review

MeSH terms

Breast Feeding / economics*
Breast Feeding / statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
Infant
Medicaid
Mothers
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act*
Socioeconomic Factors
United States

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding