According to Save the Children’s, State of the World’s Mothers Report 2009, the US risk for maternal mortality is 1 in 4,800—"one of the highest in the developed world". Save the Children is a fairly conservative U.S. based NGO. Every year it publishes a report on the state of the world’s mothers and children which includes country rankings in categories of "More Developed", "Developing", and "Less Developed" countries. This year’s report, Sate of the World’s Mothers in 2009 was issued in May. The report contains important information about the state of mothers and children in the United States. It demonstrates the extent of misinformation propounded by conservatives in current debates about healthcare and contradicts the claim that US Healthcare is the "best in the world". You can read the full report here
Most of the information which would embarrass US officials, particularly Republicans and the Bush administration is buried in the report. The report ranks the United States among the lowest in the "More Developed" country category for maternal and infant health. In 2009, the US ranked 27th in the Mothers’ Index for "More Developed" countries—behind almost all of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, and several former Eastern Bloc countries including Croatia, the Czech republic, Lithuania, and Slovenia. The report highlights several reasons for this.
One of the key indicators used to calculate well-being for mothers is lifetime risk of maternal mortality. The United States’ risk for maternal mortality is 1 in 4,800—one of the highest in the developed world. Thirty five out of 43 countries performed better than the United States on this indicator, including all the Western, Northern, and Southern European countries (save Estonia and Albania) as well as Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. A Woman in the United States is 5 times as likely as a woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece or Italy to die from pregnancy-related causes and her risk of maternal death is nearly 10 fold that of a woman in Ireland.
The findings on under-5 mortality are even worse:
In terms of under-5 mortality: The U.S. under-5 mortality rate is 8 per 1,000 live births. This is on par with rates in Serbia, Slovakia, and Lithuania. 29 countries performed better than the U.S. on this indicator. A child in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a child in Iceland or Sweden to die before his or her fifth birthday. The United States ranks 34th out of 43 countries for children’s health...
The United States has the least generous maternity leave policy—both in terms of duration and percentage of wages paid—of any wealthy nation...
The United States has one of the world’s widest gaps between rich and poor so the disparities are especially striking.
The Save the Children Mothers’ Index demonstrates that our private healthcare system has not been working out so well for us. Yet despite the evidence, Republicans and conservative pundits continue to insist that a public option should not be included in health care reform. They claim that government should not interfere in health care. They claim that private insurers are more capable than government in administering health care. They proclaim that a public option for health care will bankrupt the country and be ineffective to provide appropriate care.
The blame for the sad state of America’s health care system lies squarely at the feet of the private insurance industry. Private health care insurers have had carte blanche over health insurance for decades and they have succeeded in providing health care that ranks the U.S. alongside countries that suffered for years under the repressive Soviet Regime (Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria) and countries engaged in a terrible civil war less than two decades ago (Bosnia-Herzegovena, Croatia, Serbia).
I have written to both of my Senators to urge them to support a public option for health care reform. Senator Warner responded; Senator Webb has not yet responded. Here is a portion of the non-responsive response that I received from Senator Warner’s office:
Although I do not support a government-run single-payer health care system, I believe we need comprehensive reform to achieve a competitive, cost-effective, and efficient system. This effort should be primarily focused on ensuring that all Americans can get adequate health coverage, and the coverage must be cost-effective and based upon data-driven medical standards. Any final reform should also include measures to promote use of electronic medical records and a more intense focus on preventive care.
When this issue comes up for debate, I plan to put progress before partisanship to work on ways to increase access to health care for all Americans. Thanks again for writing with your views on health care. I hope to have your input in the coming months as we craft legislation to improve a health care system that is in dire need of reform.
As you can see, Senator Warner is not committed to a public option. His staff seems to think that the usual political drivel will satisfy me. Well it won’t and it doesn’t. We need to make sure that our Senators answer our questions. Senator Warner and Senator Webb and other so-called "moderate" Democrats need to be more than non-Republicans. They need to be responsive to the needs of the citizens who elected them and they need to take a stand on the issue now. As another diarist has written today, here are four questions that we need to ask our Senators and Representatives:
• Do you support a public healthcare option as part of reform?
• Do you support a public healthcare option that is ready on day one?
• Do you support a public healthcare option that is national, available everywhere, and accountable to our government?
• Do you support a public healthcare option that has the clout to establish rates with providers and big drug companies?
We need answers to these questions. We don't need Tom Daschle and other wimps to give up the public option just because a Republican says "boo". The "non-Republicans" aka "moderate Democrats" need to understand that we will not be satisfied unless a public option is included in health care reform. I stand with Hunter on this. If there isn't a public option included in health care reform, what good is it?