Four Things that Are Going Wrong For Uninsured Pregnant Moms in the Middle
I have covered five things that are going right for Moms in the Middle, but there’s always two sides to every story. Despite our best efforts, the current economic downturn has forced more pregnant mothers to face the world without health insurance. It doesn’t seem like it is going to get any better anytime in the near future. There is bad news everywhere you turn. Five of the worst are in this article.
COBRA Subsidy
The stimulus package enacted by the president includes a subsidy of up to 65% of your COBRA . That sounds great, but with an average bill of $1200 a month, you would still owe $420 a month. For someone who is laid off that is nearly an impossible payment to make. So while the COBRA subsidy is a good idea, it is simply not enough.
Clinics and Charities Are Overloaded
Money is pouring into charities in much higher amounts than anyone expected given the current economy. That same money is going back out again faster than it comes in, for the same reason. More and more pregnant mothers are being laid off or just let go.
Clinics have seen an upswing in the number of doctors that donate their time, but even that increase can not stem the tide of new patients waiting for them every day.
HIPAA Is For Hypocrites
While the newest HIPAA laws offer very few women the chance at health care without a waiting period, there are enough loopholes that insurance companies get out of covering many pregnant women who get new jobs. You are doing better for yourself by landing a better job, but getting kicked for changing jobs to begin with. What gives?
Fewer Jobs
Fewer jobs means more pregnant women on the look for work. Many of the employers who are hiring do not want to bring on board an employee who is going to take an extended leave in less than a year. It’s discrimination, but it happens.
Being pregnant and out of work with no insurance is bad enough, but, to make it worse, it seems the chips are stacked against you. We must persevere!
Do We Need Pregnancy Discrimination Laws?
Pregnancy discrimination is a terrible thing, especially when hard-working women are punished in the workplace because they are pregnant. That’s why we need pregnancy discrimination laws – or do we?
In a recent ABC News piece (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/Story?id=7479662&page=3), Carrie Lucas from the Independent Women’s Forum wonders if the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which makes it illegal to fire or refuse to hire a woman because she is pregnant, has actually made it more difficult for women to find and maintain employment.
The irony is thick: anti-discrimination laws breeding discrimination? But Lucas might have a point – since the PDA was enacted, more women have filed discrimination complaints, and employers might be afraid to fire women who are not doing a good job, viewing them as potential lawsuits. Just because the law says employers can’t fire or not hire a woman because she is pregnant, doesn’t mean they can’t find another reason to justify their decisions.
On the other hand, perhaps the law has no teeth – employers are actively practicing pregnancy discrimination because they think it can’t be proven, and they therefore can’t be penalized. This is not a case where you say, “Oh, the law’s not working – they’re still discriminating, so we might as well repeal it.” Instead, the law needs some teeth. But it also needs to be fair – frivolous lawsuits should be tossed; those with merit should be adjudicated.
For large corporations, it might be easy to track and survey with accuracy the number of pregnant women per capita, and their perception of how their firm treated them during their pregnancies. For small businesses, especially those with fewer than 100 employees, this would be impossible to do.
If pregnancy discrimination laws put women at a disadvantage, it is because the laws are not being enforced – NOT because the laws shouldn’t exist.
The $50,000 Baby
The cost of a newborn baby can be as much as $30,000 (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090426/LIFE03/904260512/1079/LIFE).
The cost of prenatal care and delivery can be anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 and beyond.
The median household income in the United States is $50,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States).
If you have an uncomplicated pregnancy with a normal vaginal delivery, and have two working parents in the household who earn “median” wages but do not have maternity health care coverage, that leaves you with about $10,000 to get through the year. If you have an “average” C-section, that leaves you with $0. And if you have a complicated pregnancy, you could be left $40,000 in debt. And if your baby needs intensive neo-natal care, you might be stuck with a bill of over $200,000.
Putting things in perspective, why should so natural as bringing a new life into the world cost $50,000+?
Pregnant Women and Newborns At Greatest Risk During Pandemic
The other day I postulated that our government is more concerned with the swine flu, which as of this writing has killed three people in the United States, than the prenatal care inaccessibility epidemic, which kills more than 6,000 babies in the United States each year. Pregnant women and their babies are continually left to fend for themselves when it comes to political policy.
And so it should come as no surprise that the groups at greatest risk for suffering the devastating effects of a pandemic are pregnant women and newborns (http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=4970). The irony is thick, indeed.
At least some of us are watching out for the sake of pregnant women and their babies; and our cause gained even more momentum this week when a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study published in the Emerging Health Threats Journal (http://www.eht-forum.org/ehtj/journal/v2/full/ehtj09002a.html?fileId=ehtj09002a&page=recent) concluded that priority must be given to pregnant women and their babies in the event of a flu epidemic.
Still, it’s unsettling that our country’s most precious resources are drowning in the bottom as everyone else steps on their figurative heads to get closer to the top of the bucket. Only slightly less unsettling is that the UPMC study found that while 78% of responding maternity hospitals had written plans for handling a sudden influx of sick patients, fewer than 44% of those same hospitals had written plans for stockpiling and replenishing resources to care for those patients.
From the UPMC study Abstract: “In conclusion, the majority of the Council of Women’s and Infants’ Specialty Hospitals maternity hospitals have preliminary infrastructure for pandemic influenza planning, but many challenges exist to optimize maternal and fetal outcomes during the next influenza pandemic.”
In one respect, this is just another heaping helping of hurt piled on the collective plates of Moms in the Middle. On the other hand, the study brings to light inherent problems in the maternity medical infrastructure – and that’s the first step to developing solutions.
Let’s bring all the problems to light, so we can solve each and every one.
Maternity Healthcare is in Crisis
Women And Children First?
“Women and children first!” That’s the stereotypical cry from the chivalrous men of literature and the silver screen. When the ship is sinking, you save the most vulnerable first. Unfortunately, this ideology seems to matter primarily in the annals of fiction – in the real world, the practice of saving the most vulnerable first is rarely implemented. Especially evident in today’s economic climate, women and children are being allowed to drown, while the captains of their fate continue to prosper. No, America does not save women and children first, and captains do not go down with their ships.
When financial institutions are facing hardships due to the decisions the companies have made in the last decade or so, the government gives them hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. The captains of these industries then enjoy spa treatments and end-of-year bonuses presumably footed by hard-working Americans, while the citizens they employ are laid off, their positions are terminated, or pay and benefit cuts are sweeping.
And women and their children feel it the most. Take a look at this report from the National Women’s Law Center: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/WomenEconomicRecoveryJuly2008.pdf. It details how women are in need of targeted assistance, especially during recessionary times, because they’re often the first to be tossed overboard. And because women are often the primary caregivers for American’s children, the youth of America is likewise cast aside.
Some facts from the report:
Women earn 23% less than men
Women are 40% more likely to live in poverty than men, and one in every eight American women is poor
Women are 10% less likely to receive unemployment benefits after losing a job
Women are 30 to 40% more likely to have subprime mortgage loans, despite comparable credit scores to men
These factors, combined with a lower average compensation, make it more difficult for women to maintain and care for their families and households. Single women with children face the toughest times of all, especially when state legislatures are considering slashing Medicaid budgets (four out of every ten single mothers receives Medicaid assistance).
America, the ship is sinking and women and children are drowning. Our captains, those who have steered us in this direction, are not subject to the consequences of a sinking ship. Instead, the American people are struggling to keep the ship afloat, bucket by bucket, and their collective efforts ensure the livelihood of their captains – who no longer have fear of financial ruin because public funds are readily available to assist them.
Do the heads of industries need assistance more than the heads of households? Of course not. Our women and children need assistance now more than ever, yet these are the last to be attended to. Greed and corruption are in abundance, while millions of women and children nationwide suffer as martyrs for their cause.
Benefits of Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins work better when taken along with a healthy diet. They are only meant to be a supplement, and not a substitute for a proper diet. Never rely on prenatal vitamins for all your nutritional needs. Talk to your doctor about what foods you should be eating.
Be sure to keep an eye on your calcium. An expectant mother generally requires 1,200mg – 1,500mg of calcium on a daily basis. Most prenatal vitamins do not contain this amount, so you may need a calcium supplement in addition. (Many will only contain 250-500mg.) Calcium is certainly important in the development of your new baby.
No two prenatal vitamins are the same; and many may not provide any benefits at all. Recent studies show that a pregnant woman’s body does not necessarily absorb all of the nutrients provided by the vitamins, especially folate. Folate is extremely important in the baby’s prenatal development. The vitamin helps prevent birth defects like spina-bifida.
While prescribed vitamins are ideal, most of the same vitamins are available over the counter in stores. You may be able to save substantial money with a store bought brand. The most important things to consider are the ingredients in the vitamins, and whether they absorb quickly or not.
There is an easy test you can use to determine if the vitamins will be absorbed into your system. Put one of the prenatal vitamins into a cup of water. Wait ten minutes. If the vitamin is dissolved, or is very soft, it will be absorbed into your system. If the vitamin remains hard, it will probably pass through your system without depositing many of the nutrients it carries. This is important, so be sure to do this with any new vitamin. (I am NOT a doctor or rocket scientist, this is just plain LOGIC)
Finding the right prenatal vitamin may take a little trial and error, but the benefits are great. Just continue to keep in mind that you still need to maintain a healthy diet. The benefits of prenatal vitamins are enormous and highly recommended, but good nutrition is still better than any supplement. Remember, no vitamin is going to be exactly the same, but here is what most sources that I have found suggest (these will vary slightly):
4,000 and 5,000 IU (international units) of vitamin A
800 and 1,000 mcg (1 mg) of folic acid
400 IU of vitamin D
200 to 300 mg of calcium
70 mg of vitamin C
1.5 mg of thiamine
1.6 mg of riboflavin
2.6 mg of pyridoxine
17 mg of niacin amide
2.2 mcg of vitamin B-12
10 mg of vitamin E
15 mg of zinc
30 mg of iron
Fighting for the uninsured and underinsured pregnant mom and their unborn babies,
Advocate Aaron
Maternity Health
The Word Is Out.
