Policy analysis: The impact of coverage of lactation consultants on Medicaid spending in Georgia.

Lactation consultants help women learn to breast feed their babies. Some insurers cover the services of lactation consultants, but others, including Medicaid in Georgia, do not. Lactation consultants are lobbying the state government to allow Medicaid to reimburse lactation consultants. They argue that breastfeeding rates are higher among women who receive care form lactation consultants and that breastfeeding is associated with significant health benefits for babies.

Write a policy analysis to answer this question: How would Medicaid spending in Georgia change if Medicaid began to reimburse for the services of lactation consultants? Consider both the direct cost associated with reimbursing lactation consultant as well as possible cost saving due to improvements in child health. Restrict attention to health benefits in the first two years of life. To make the analysis manageable, I suggest restricting attention to commonly occurring health condition linked to breastfeeding like ear infections (i.e., otitis media).

Your paper should include a one- way probabilistic sensitivity analysis for at least one of the key assumption in your analysis

You should not have a separate "limitations" section. Integrate your decision of limitations with rest of the text.

Please carefully describe assumptions about 1)the impact of receipt of lactation consultants' services on breastfeeding rates and 2) the impact of breastfeeding on health outcomes.

Your paper should no longer than 2 pages, the references in third page, Youmay assume your analysis was commissioned by the governor's office.