American mothers dying; blame poverty and racism
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Poor credit history can keep you from buying a house. It can keep you from getting a car loan. It could make interest rates higher and credit limits lower.
One thing it should not do?
Prevent a pregnant woman from getting medical attention.
Listen to this story from a new report on maternal mortality in the U.S.:
Trina Bachtel, a 35-year-old white woman, was insured at the time of her pregnancy, but the local clinic had reportedly told her that it required a US$100 deposit to see her, because she had incurred a medical debt some years earlier – even though the debt had since been repaid. Trina Bachtel delayed seeking care, unable to afford the fee at the local clinic. She finally received medical attention in a hospital but her son was stillborn. She was later transferred to another hospital in Ohio where she died in August 2007, two weeks after the birth.
For a country that supposedly has the most innovative health care system in the world, we seem to suck at the basics.
Mothers dying in childbirth is skyrocketing in the U.S., according to a new report from Amnesty International USA. In 1987, there were 6.6 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Today, that’s more than doubled to 13.3 per 100,000.
This rise is happening for several different reasons. One is better data collection – we simply know more about what’s happening. Another is the rise of unnecessary medical interventions like Cesearean sections that put moms at risk for fatal complications.
But an enormous factor is poverty and systemic racism. If you’re a poor or black woman in America, you’re way more likely to die in childbirth. African-American women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than a white woman, a statistic that hasn’t changed in 20 years.
The same health care system that keeps people from going to the doctor when they have a cold keeps women from getting decent prenantal care. The stresses of living at the bottom of the economic ladder make it even worse.
Many women report not being able to go to the doctor because they risk being fired from their jobs for missing work. Medicaid can even be a barrier in itself – for Medicaid to cover a pregnancy, a woman first has to get a letter from her doctor confirming her pregnancy. How do you go to the doctor to get the letter if you don’t have health care?
Bottom line, we must do better. Birth is the beginning of life. If we can’t master that, all our advances in technology just add insult to injury for poor women and women of color in our country.
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She could neo-natal care for free, the programs are out there. This is a non-starter, are you willing to pay up to 50% of your income for the health care of the irresponsible? She couldn’t find 100 dollars? Then she should not have been pregnant. At the end of the day having a child is a financial as well as life long commitment if you are unable to deal with one or the other use prophylactics, they too can be gotten for free.
Gregory,
I am glad you have never known financial hardship. Birth control fails – unplanned pregnancies happen and free prenatal care is NOT readily available everywhere – especially in rural areas. I do agree that one should be financially stable before having children, but reality is quite different. So please justify letting a child die for their parent’s mistakes – if you can.
Your utter lack of compassion is appalling.
In response to another comment. See in context »Answer the question. Are you willing to pay to 50% percent of your income for the irresponsible?
In response to another comment. See in context »Provide evidence that I would have to…
In response to another comment. See in context »I paid 50% of my retirement for irresponsibility when my 401K bottomed out because bankers used Wall Street like a casino, why shouldn’t I do so for a person in need? And where in the world does anyone pay 50% of their income to give someone else health care? Oh, that’s right, America, that’s where. So no, in answer to your question, I do not want to pay 50% of my income in the craptastic and ineffective health provision system that we have. I’d gladly pay 7% of my income to help my fellow man like the Germans do though. But no, lets talk in straw man arguments…
In response to another comment. See in context »Well said…
In response to another comment. See in context »Brad, I couldn’t agree with you more. Gregory is completely out of line. Gregory, you don’t necessarily have to pay 50% of your income to help save a life.
In response to another comment. See in context »Does more than that Megan (last paragraph), how we care for people says what we are, period.
[...] week, I wrote about a pregnant woman who was denied health care when she was in distress because of her credit history. Trina Bachtel didn’t have $100 in her pocket for a deposit, which she was required to pay [...]