PUBLIC FUNDING AND POLICIES FOR PROVISION OF THE CONTRACEPTIVE IMPLANT, FISCAL YEAR 1992

According to results of a survey of state Medicaid, health and welfare agencies, these agencies spent $61 million in federal and stale funds on the provision of the contraceptive implant to low-income women in FY 1992. Some $57 million of this was federal funds, with Medicaid acc ounting for 84% of all public funds spent on the implant; only nine st ates committed monies from their own coffers. The Medicaid agencies of 13 states reported restrictions on the number of subsidized implants a woman could receive over her reproductive lifetime. No Medicaid agen cy has provisions to cover required or requested removals of the devic e among users who become ineligible for Medicaid while the implant is in place; only eight health departments have policies ensuring subsidi zed removals for such women.