Even though Rastliln’s post preceded Kenny’s, I think it applies even more strongly to the law against driving thru…
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It isn’t (well it shouldn’t be). That’s why @Rastiln said they did it illegally. But until it is contested and makes its way through the courts it will remain on the books as an intimidation tactic.
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And nobody wants to be the test subject who’s jailed for attempting to get an abortion, and “oh hey you passed the legal deadline while in jail, oopsie”.
(I say seriously, but not knowing details on TX abortion law except “it’s quite shitty”.)
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What is particularly disconcerting is that our infant mortality rates were already previously higher than Western European countries, Canada, Australia, NZ, etc. Any indication that other countries are experiencing a current uptick?
Canada isn’t. Its infant mortality rate continued its long term decline in 2022 and is estimated to be lower in 2023 as well. Current Canadian rate is 4.0 deaths per 1000 live births.
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Cross-referencing against obesity. Quickest relevant stat (partially estimated from graphs):
2005 US obesity: 35%
2018: 45%
2005 Canadian obesity: 22%
2018: 27%
Wouldn’t say your decrease was due to better obesity trends, even if you were and are less fat.
I can’t think of anything in particular in Canada in recent years that would have worsened infant mortality, except maybe the stress on health care from COVID? Marginalized groups in Canadian society probably have better access to healthcare than their US counterparts but that only helps to explain the overall number rather than the trend?
We have lower birth rates overall in Canada but I don’t see how that is a factor.
The local drive thru laws I’m read about have the same enforcement as the state anti abortion law. They provide an means for a private lawsuit, but prohibit gov’t employees from enforcing the law. So, no jail (unless this leads to contempt of court).
This is why abortion providers can’t sue for an injunction.
I expect it is easier to qualify for Medicaid for a birth than it is to qualify in general.
Medicaid is a major public source of financing health care services provided to pregnant women, infants and children. In 2020, 42.0% of mothers had Medicaid at the time of birth.
Even after it will very likely remain on the books as a law that cannot be enforced.
Every so often you hear about a state or county removing an obviously unconstitutional law from their books (like a Jim Crow law or a law requiring that elected officials be Christian or a provision for two different pay scales for men and women or something like that).
Keep in mind that:
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There is no standard for what constitutes a live birth. If we attempt to save 10 preemie babies that other countries would determine are not viable and 9 of them die… we have saved a baby that other countries wouldn’t have, but those 9 that died make our stats look really bad. (Our denominator is 10 higher which helps very slightly but our numerator is 9 higher which hurts immensely.)
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Maternal drug use wreaks havoc on infant mortality. I don’t know if our rate is higher but it may well be. I imagine that accurate stats are hard to come by as women may be reluctant to admit drug use during pregnancy.
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The aforementioned difficulties of getting a late term abortion for a non-viable fetus may be wreaking havoc on our stats.
Thanks. Good birth outcomes may depend also on the healthcare and living conditions well before the birth.
I know hardly anything about Medicaid benefits. Does someone qualifying for Medicaid have access to the same quality of hospitals and physicians as a person with a good company medical plan? Or is it a bit of a two-tier system in the US?
I have very limited personal experience on that. Googling tells me this:
About 70% of all office-based physicians accept new Medicaid patients, including two-thirds of primary care physicians and close to three-quarters (72%) of specialists…
Compared to
about 85% of physicians accept new privately insured patients,
Thanks.
My BIL was a partner in a kidney dialysis clinic in South Carolina and almost all his patients were on Medicaid. You couldn’t find a better nephrologist than him but I wasn’t sure how typical that was.
ESRD gets you on Medicare, so dialysis is almost always paid by Medicare.
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But… the mortality is getting better in Canada, no? You said it was lower, which is better.
But I will reiterate that a lot is driven by how pre-term viability is defined. If Canada decreased their age of viability from, say 25 weeks and 1.5 pounds to 24 weeks and 1.2 pounds then all of a sudden your infant mortality is going to skyrocket as many of those 24 week babies that you weren’t previously trying to save are going to end up dying, even though a few will live. You’re actually saving MORE babies than you had been, but you get rewarded for that by getting much WORSE infant mortality stats. It’s very perverse.
The definition of live birth (which seemingly first must be met to be included as an infant death) in Canada seems the same as in the US, neither of which are dependent on gestational age.
ETA: I first looked at the CDC definition, then googled a Canadian definition. This is for Oregon, but it breaks things into 3 categories: live birth (always needs to be reported), fetal death (which may or may not need to be formally reported, depending on age/weight), and termination. Note that intent to terminate doesn’t override the definition of live birth.
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Yes Canada is getting better.
I guess I did not communicate clearly. My second point was just saying I knew of nothing that would have produced a worse result.
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In my experience (foster kids are on Medicaid), doctors may technically accept it, but are usually not accepting any new Medicaid patients, as their quota is teeny. And there are some forms of Medicaid some providers outright won’t accept at all - caresource comes to mind, I remember all my doctors plastering notices they would no longer be accepting caresource, several years ago.
Our pediatrician told us that she would accept our foster son if he was placed for adoption, because our kids are already patients, but they would be making an exception to do it. It’s tough to get our foster kids care, we usually have to go to the children’s hospital’s ER or UC when we need to be seen same day, which is a really bad way to go about it.
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i wonder if Cooke is confusing Medicare and Medicaid
Even if Dual eligible, Medicare pays first.