I am your constituent and I want you to know about a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Here is a link to their report on maternal care in rural America. https://ruralhospitals.chqpr.org/downloads/Rural_Maternity_Care_Crisis.pdf.
It is shameful. More than 200 hospitals in rural areas stopped offering labor and delivery in the last 10 years and more than half of rural hospitals no longer offer birthing services. The more time it takes to get to the hospital the more at risk the mother and child are. Part of the problem is that labor and delivery is not a profit function, the other is getting the doctors to be present. It is a complicated problem but, Good News, you can help fix both problems.
First make it safe to be an OB/GYN by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act (S. 701/H.R. 12) so that doctors don’t leave states that threaten to put them in jail for caring for their patients. Those doctors are the ones best suited to handle high risk pregnancies. NEXT, make sure the hospitals have enough money to keep labor and delivery open by offering a global budget that makes sure that their infrastructure costs are covered. That is section 611 of H.R. 3421, the vastly improved Medicare for All Act. Look, I know women and mothers and children are important to you. Here is your chance to act like it. Support and pass both of those. Thank you.
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