OCR Text |
Show Table 1 Medicaid Birth Coverage by County of Residence: Utah,1985-89 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 State Total All Births 37,441 36,383 35,285 36,040 35,558 Medicaid Births 2287 3390 3975 4334 5916 Percentage Medicaid 6.1% 9.3% 11.3 % 12.0 % 16.6 % Salt Lake County All Births 15,250 14,920 14,636 14,761 14,536 Medicaid Births 1080 1517 1673 1718 2406 Percentage Medicaid 7.1% 10.2 % 11.4 % 11.6% 16.6 % Weber County All Births 3,278 3,179 3,042 3,082 3,093 Medicaid Births 320 308 388 446 555 Percentage Medicaid 9.8% 9.7% 12.8 % 14.5 % 17.9% Balance of State All Births 18,913 18,284 17,607 18,197 17,929 Medicaid Births 887 1,565 1,914 2,170 2,955 Percentage Medicaid 4.7% 8.6% 10.9 % 11.9% 16.5 % Note: Medicaid Births determined by matching in-patient hospital claims to Utah resident birth certificates. See Appendix for a description of the methodology. availability, as promoted by the Baby Your Baby Program. If the general improvement in infant mortality can be attributed to the Baby Your Baby Program, then the program's impact is not apparent in Weber County. Nearly all infant deaths in Utah are due to one of three general causes: diseases of early infancy (International Classification of Diseases codes 760-779), Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (798.0), or congenital anomalies (740-759), as shown in Figure 2. Compared to Salt Lake County, Weber County had excessive of deaths due to diseases of early infancy from 1985 to 1989. Deaths in this category are generally associated with low birthweight and prematurity, problems targeted by most public health intervention programs attempting to reduce infant mortality. Medicaid Births A possible source of variation in infant mortality across counties from 1985-1989 may have been geographically uneven penetration of Medicaid birth coverage. Medicaid coverage of services to pregnant women and infants was greatly expanded between 1985 and 1989. Table 1 shows that the Medicaid expansion during this period was fairly even across Salt Lake and Weber Counties, as well as throughout the rest of the state; in fact, Weber County had the highest level of Medicaid coverage in 1985 and in 1989. Proportionately however, the increase in Medicaid penetration was smallest in Weber County (83% increase in proportion covered) compared to the rest of Utah (251% increase). It may be that the socioeconomic characteristics of Weber County warrant a much higher level of Medicaid coverage than is necessary 126 INFANT MORTALITY |