More than half of states now pay for doula support through Medicaid. Pregnant people covered by Medicaid in those states still frequently cannot find a doula who takes it.
That gap between a benefit existing on paper and a benefit a person can actually use is the subject of new reporting from KFF Health News. Doulas told the outlet that low reimbursement rates and the paperwork required to get approved as a Medicaid provider keep many of them out of the program, which narrows the pool available to the people the benefit was written for.
