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[A Draft of an op-ed submitted to the New Haven Register.]
Prenatal health care is declining in Connecticut. According to data from the Department of Public Health, the percent of white mothers who failed to receive adequate prenatal care increased from 10 percent to 16 percent between 2000 and 2004 (the date of the most recent data available). The situation was worse for blacks. More than a quarter of black mothers failed to receive adequate prenatal care in 2004, up 8 percentage points from 2000. Hispanic mothers were in a somewhat similar condition to black mothers. More than a quarter of Latina mothers did not receive adequate prenatal care in 2004, up 5 percentage points from 2000.
I take the decline in prenatal care in Connecticut as yet another sign that our health care system is not well. A number of recent reports illustrate this fact. I was alerted to the decline in adequate prenatal care by the Connecticut NAACP’s “A Health Status Report on African Americans in Connecticut” issued this year.
The NAACP report also examined the growing cost of preventable hospitalizations. People without routine medical care tend to end up being rushed by ambulance to emergency rooms when their health care needs are critical. In many cases, these hospitalizations could have been prevented had the patient received routine health care.
In 2000, the cost of preventable hospitalizations was $611 million. By 2004, it had increased 46 percent to $893 million. It is estimated that it will exceed $1.1 billion in 2008. Again, our health care system is not well.
The national picture is quite similar. Large numbers of Americans are unable to obtain needed health care because of the cost. A survey conducted this year by the Rockefeller Foundation found that 17 percent of whites, 20 percent of blacks and 26 percent of Hispanics were unable to see a doctor because of the cost. Eight percent of whites and blacks and 13 percent of Hispanics were unable to take a child to the doctor because of the cost. Twenty percent of all Americans have had to dip into their savings or retirement accounts to pay for medical expenses. Unless our health care system receives a complete overhaul, it seems likely that these numbers will increase.
Many people with health insurance are filled with health care worries. About 40 percent of Americans with health care are worried that they will lose coverage in the near future. The number jumps to almost 60 percent for Hispanics. About half of all people with health care are worried that they might not be able to afford a major hospital stay. Again, for Latinos with health care, it is nearly 60 percent.
What are our options for dealing with an ailing health care system? It seems that if we were to adopt the health care system of just about any other Western developed nation, we would be better off. A recent report by the Commonwealth Fund compares the health care system of the United States with that of Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The U.S. had the lowest overall ranking.
Although the U.S. ranked last, it actually has the highest health care spending per capita. The United Kingdom achieved its top spot by spending less than half of what we do per capita.
Of course, the U.S. will not adopt the health care policy of any other country whole cloth; and we should not. But I have problems with any politician who acts as if there are not important lessons that the U.S. can learn from countries like the United Kingdom that have provided quality health care to all of its citizens at a relatively low cost. Any politician who cavalierly dismisses the practices of Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as “socialized medicine” simply cannot be thinking about the millions of Americans without health care or even those with health care who are worried that they will not be able to afford it next year.
Not many issues in politics are life and death issues. This one is. Do we have politicians capable enough to take on the challenge of substantive health care reform? Let’s hope so.
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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.
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