Saturday, March 24, 2018

More than one-half of births in rural America are covered by Medicaid

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748454/-More-than-half-of-births-in-rural-America-are-covered-by-Medicaid
"If Republicans succeed in slashing Medicaid, they'll succeed in doing away with maternity care in much of rural America. Even now, about 45 percent of rural hospitals don’t have maternity care, with almost 1 in 10 rural counties losing hospital-based obstetrics programs between 2004 and 2014. "When rural hospitals are squeezed, they have to look at what fixed costs they can shed," Katy Kozhimannil, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health told KHN. She continued, "The fixed costs of providing obstetrics services are very clear, and very distinct." Obstetrics is expensive. And supposedly “pro-life” Republicans want to make childbirth not just more common, but more dangerous and more expensive by cutting Medicaid even further."