Commission Urges N.C. Lawmakers To Fund Premature Delivery Prevention For Low-Income Women

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 15 Jan 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The North Carolina Legislature's Child Fatality Task Force this week voted to request that lawmakers allocate about $97,000 for progesterone injections to prevent premature childbirth among low-income, uninsured pregnant women, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. North Carolina began offering the drug, known as 17P, to low-income women without insurance in 2007 and continued the program in 2008.

The injections have been found to reduce the risk of early birth by one-third among women who have experienced a prior, unexplained premature delivery, according to the News & Observer. The series of injection are administered for about four months during pregnancy and cost about $320 per woman. Medicaid and most private insurance companies already pay for the treatment for some women at-risk for premature delivery, according to the News & Observer.

Joe Holliday, head of the state's Division of Public Health's Women's Health Branch, said preventing premature deliveries would confer substantial savings. According to the News & Observer, the average cost of care for a woman and her premature infant is $20,000 for the first year. Tom Vitaglione, co-chair of the task force, said, "We often talk about not having a magic bullet for problems that relate to our children, but this is almost sort of a magic bullet" (Locke, Raleigh News & Observer, 1/13).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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