MURTHA AIRPORT BAILOUT
Happy 4th of July
Government-Mandated Health Insurance – Could It Be Any Simpler?
The proposal: Everyone must purchase health insurance. The government will help offset insurance costs for those who cannot afford it. Insurance companies will not deny anyone coverage or increase premiums based on an individuals’ health status.
Could it be any simpler? Such a system would not only provide health care coverage for every American, it would do so in a way that does not jeopardize the quality of care received. Because insurance and health care would remain privatized, Americans would not have to suffer through long waits for inadequate care – a fate that has riddled international universal health care systems with hassles and hold-ups.
Yes, Americans would have to make one concession: Everybody would have to purchase insurance or suffer a tax penalty. This keeps premiums low for everyone, and is the key selling point to get the insurance industry on board. Some say that this type of system will only work to keep insurance executives employed. Yes… and so what? If they’re giving Americans – and especially pregnant women – what we want and what we need, they should be able to keep their jobs. It’s funny how people will complain about universal health care coverage, yet sit idle while Congress passes a stimulus bill that, among other things, will spend half a million dollars on a fruit fly facility, millions for land acquisition, and many more millions for infrastructure updates.
Universal health care is not socialism – it is people taking care of people. That principle has nothing to do with economic systems, social classes or geography. Every one of us depends on someone else for survival, from the baby suckling from her mother’s breast to the CEO cashing in on consumer spending. Classes might be divided; but our country – and humanity – is united.
The proposed universal health care system is simple, and provides for everyone. Under it, disadvantaged pregnant women would no longer have to suffer the indignity and stress of begging for maternity services and fair and equal treatment. All pregnant women would have access to proper prenatal care, and all children would receive proper medical care.
Taxes that cover Medicaid, Medicare and a slew of other federal, state and local health care assistance programs would no longer be necessary, not to mention the taxes that currently assist hospitals in covering the costs of government-mandated emergency services for the uninsured and unable to pay. These are taxes we’re already paying.
Some have said that universal health care would cost $1.5 trillion, which might be true. What they’re leaving out of the argument is that Medicare spending alone is expected to exceed that mark within the next 20 years. By consolidating all of our health into one program, we can reduce redundancies, increase efficiencies and provide much-needed high-quality health care for everyone – including pregnant women – while still saving money.
Or, are we being set up???? I want your thoughts?
Another Glimmer of Hope For Pregnant Women
Remember the huge March of Dimes Report Card that shed light on the pervasive premature birth problem in the United States? You know, the one that put in indisputable figures the dismal state of our maternity health care system… the one that found that one of the leading factors in the U.S. premature birth rate is a lack of prenatal care?
While legislators finally begin addressing the overwhelming need for proper and affordable prenatal care, some institutions have been offering affordable prenatal care to pregnant women for years. And the results are just as stunning as the figures in the March of Dimes report.
Take Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, which last week announced that it had cut premature rates almost by half in the last two decades (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-babies_28met.ART0.State.Edition1.4a5c74e.html).
The information published by Parkland validates the assertion that prenatal care is vital to healthy, timely delivery. Two paragraphs say it all:
“Dallas County’s public hospital, which operates one of the nation’s busiest maternity wards, cut its rate of premature births nearly in half – to 4.9 percent in 2006 from 9.4 percent of births in 1988.
Parkland officials credited comprehensive prenatal care for improving the outcomes of 16,000 births annually at the hospital, which has the second-highest number of deliveries in any U.S. hospital.”
The statistics are amazing, especially for a high-volume hospital such as Parkland. And to what does Parkland owe its stellar premature birth rate record? PRENATAL CARE!
What’s more, Parkland officials say most of their maternity patients are low-income women who either pay affordable $50 co-payments per visit or qualify for government assistance and pay little to nothing at all.
With these figures, it’s no surprise that Parkland is ranked among the nation’s best gynecological hospitals (http://www.usnews.com/listings/hospitals/6740950). And because Parkland is a PUBLIC HOSPITAL, the hospital’s success in reducing instances of premature births lends credence to the notion that publicly-funded medicine can and does work!
Let’s hope that the news doesn’t fall on deaf ears, that Congress learns from the successes of others and works to provide proper prenatal care to all women, regardless of socioeconomic factors, so America’s future is invested in healthy children.
The Family Medical and Leave Act Rendered Worthless Especially for the working Class Pregnant Mom
The Family Medical and Leave Act protects the rights of mothers to take up to 12 weeks off from work for childbirth (see the fact sheet here: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28.pdf). Despite this, more and more new mothers are returning to the workplace sooner than they wanted to help stabilize family finances, as reported by Dana Mattioli in the Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/03/11/new-mothers-cutting-short-maternity-leave/).
The current economic climate has put a strain on American families – especially when a mother is out of work and a father is laid off. Our need to earn has forced women to give up their rights and the precious bonding that only mothers and babies can share.
The FMLA requires that employers with at least 50 employees allow for 12 weeks of unpaid workleave – but allows mothers to waive that right. And that’s exactly what many mothers are doing. The FMLA is now essentially worthless.
If the government really wants the FMLA to do some good, it would require that maternity leave be paid. We’re expected to give 30 years of our lives to the workforce, profiting CEOs exponentially. Can’t they be expected to help cover the bills for a few months out of three decades? Or should the government pick up the tab with all the paper money it is printing?
Perhaps originally intended to help disadvantaged mothers invoke their right to recovery and bond with their newborns, a lack of foresight has now made the FMLA relevant to the advantaged. If families can’t afford maternity leave, then the Family Medical and Leave Act does little for them. It benefits the advantaged, yet leaves the disadvantaged to struggle for survival.
Perhaps the Obama administration should revisit the Family and Medical Leave Act and not only provide time, but also the means to survive while women care for their children.
I Need Your Help
Advocate Aaron Supporters:
As you all are aware I fight every single day to help make sure moms can have affordable access to prenatal care. Prenatal care is VERY serious and without it “babies born to mothers who receive no prenatal care are three times more likely to be born at a low birth weight, and five times more likely to die, than those whose mothers received prenatal care.” –US department of Health & Human Services
Three weeks ago I was in Washington, DC lobbying and fighting for this very cause. I had the pleasure of working with Karen Fennell, one of the top lobbyist in the women’s health arena. Karen contacted me today and asked me if I could enlist the Advocate Aaron Army. I responded with an ENTHUSIASTIC “YES”, and told her it would be impossible for our moms, friends, family, relatives, etc. to NOT come through with flying colors. The task is SIMPLE, but, I need you to do it NOW and I need you to forward it to EVERYONE you know. This isn’t about us. It is MUCH bigger. This is literally about life and death for the innocent babies whose mothers CANNOT access affordable prenatal care.
Please see the message from Karen below and then TAKE ACTION NOW!!!!
PRO MOM!!!
AdvocateAaron
A Healthy pregnancy for a Healthy baby
Dear Mothers and Friends:
Pregnant Women’s Access to Care is in danger in many States. Over 43% of women’s pregnancy care is paid for by the Medicaid program; an additional 18% of pregnant women have no health insurance.
Action by the Federal Government has jeopardized the financial stability of our birth centers. I am asking you and your friends to sign on to a letter to the United States Congress to fix this problem. As a Mother and Grandmother of twin girls, I cannot stand back and let pregnant women be left with no care.
We need 10,000 signatures by May 31st to ensure that all pregnant women have access to quality, affordable health care. Stop the Federal Government from excluding pregnant women from receiving the care they deserve.
Go to the American Association of Birth Centers website at www.birthcenters.org/news/breaking-news/?id=82 and sign our consumer letter. You can make a difference!
Sincerely,
Karen S. Fennell, MS, RN
Consultant
Healthcare Advisory Solutions
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.
