Utah's high rate of uninsured pregnant women

Utah has the nation's second-highest rate of patients who don't have health insurance during pregnancy, a recent report found.

Why it matters: That likely contributes to the 18% of Utah women of reproductive age who skipped needed health care in 2022 due to its cost, according to an analysis earlier this year of women's health data by the Commonwealth Fund.

By the numbers: About 6% of pregnant women in Utah were uninsured in 2021 — behind only Georgia, at nearly 10%.

• Utah had the 14th-highest rate of women who couldn't afford health care they needed, per federal surveys in 2022.

The big picture: Utah has one of the nation's highest fertility rates, with more than 61 live births per 1,000 women ages 15-44, per the CDC .

• That means thousands of patients aren't getting the care they need.

Caveat: Uninsured patients actually represent an undercount of women who can't afford care, researchers wrote in the report.

• 30% of women ages 19 to 44 nationwide are underinsured, meaning they pay high out-of-pocket costs and deductibles relative to their income.
• "Being underinsured, along with having a poor-quality provider network, paying off medical debt, and other factors, can leave even women with coverage unable to afford health care," researchers wrote in the report.

The intrigue: Women are likelier than men to be underinsured, researchers also found.

Zoom in: Gaps in care could be particularly dangerous for mental health.

• Utah reported the nation's 5th-highest rate of postpartum depression, per researchers' analysis of 2021 CDC data .

The other side: Utah's maternal mortality rate is lower than in most states, with fewer than 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Zoom out: Where a woman lives is becoming a key determinant in how dangerous it is to give birth or if she'll die from cancers considered treatable with proper screening and routine care.

• It's a trend that could intensify as OB-GYNs and applicants to medical residencies in other specialties increasingly move away from states with restrictions on abortion.
• "Rather than policies that might help narrow the divides [in women's health], we're seeing policies that can actually widen and deepen those divides," report author Sara Collins told Axios.

Go deeper: Utah's OB-GYN shortage could worsen