Opportunities and strategies for improving maternal and child health through the ACA

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides numerous opportunities to increase coverage, improve quality, and ultimately improve health outcomes for women, infants, and children, including those with special health care needs. These opportunities include coverage expansions, investments in prevention, and new and redesigned service delivery systems that focus on quality and cost containment. Less clear is the role of public health in this new health care environment, how public and private health and health care delivery systems will be integrated, and the impact on maternal and child health (MCH) populations, particularly those who are low-income and underserved. A variety of public-private stakeholders is needed to ensure that the promise of the ACA will increase coverage, improve quality, and ultimately improve health outcomes. Collaborative efforts by public health (including state Title V MCH programs), Medicaid, and CHIP programs, providers, private insurers, families, and others are essential to ensuring that revamped health care systems fulfill the promise of the ACA, particularly for those who are low income and underserved.