Licensure is important for many reasons, but public safety is its pre-eminent purpose. A secondary reason licensure is important is that it improves access to care for those breastfeeding families who seek care through Medicaid or Champus/Tricare (in many states, this is 50% or more of all birthing families). Unless a specific exception has been granted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicaid and Champus/Tricare can only reimburse the clinical care of licensed healthcare providers. Put simply, to join a Medicaid participating provider panel, one must be licensed by the state to perform clinical care within a scope of practice. Therefore, licensure of Lactation Consultants is the first step in remedying the inequitable access to clinical lactation care between those who have private insurance and those under-resourced families who seek care through Medicaid.