Policy And Finance For Preconception Care: Opportunities for Today and the Future
Received 26 September 2008; accepted 26 September 2008.
This special supplement of Women's Health Issues offers 2 types of articles related to the policy and finance context for improving preconception health and health care. These articles discuss the impact of finance and policy on preconception health and health care, as well as the strategies that are being used to overcome the challenge of implementing preconception care with limited resources and inadequate health coverage for women. Invited papers from authors with expertise in health policy and finance issues describe how women's health and preconception care fit into the larger debates on health reform and how the paradigm for women's health must change. Other invited papers discuss opportunities and challenges for using programs such as Medicaid, Title X Family Planning, Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant, Healthy Start, and Community Health Centers in improving preconception health and health care. Contributed articles on health services research in this supplement characterize the types of change occurring across the country. This paper also presents a framework for understanding the role of policy and finance in the larger Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative.
aDepartment of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire
bCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, Georgia
Correspondence to: Kay Johnson, 175 Red Pine Road, Hinesburg, VT 05461; Phone: 802-482-3005.
The authors have no direct financial interests that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted manuscript.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Health Resources and Services Administration.
ABSTRACT