- Medicaid expansion may lower death rates, study says, By Pam Belluck, July 25, 2012, New York Times: “Into the maelstrom of debate over whether Medicaid should cover more people comes a new study by Harvard researchers who found that when states expanded their Medicaid programs and gave more poor people health insurance, fewer people died. The study, published online Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, comes as states are deciding whether to expand Medicaid by 2014 under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s health care law. The Supreme Court ruling on the law last month effectively gave states the option of accepting or rejecting an expansion of Medicaid that had been expected to add 17 million people to the program’s rolls…”
- Study: New Medicaid expansion could be a lifesaver, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (AP), July 26, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “States that expand their Medicaid programs under President Barack Obama’s health care law may end up saving thousands of lives, a medical journal report released yesterday indicates. Until now, the Medicaid debate has been about budgets and states’ rights. But a statistical study by Harvard researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine found a 6 percent drop in the adult death rate in Arizona, Maine and New York, three states that have recently expanded coverage for low-income residents along the general lines of the federal health care law. The study found that for every 176 adults covered under expanded Medicaid, one death per year would be prevented…”
Tag: Mortality rate
Global Premature Births
- U.S. lags in global measure of premature births, By Donald G. McNeil Jr., May 2, 2012, New York Times: “Fifteen million babies are born prematurely each year, and the United States fared badly in the first country-by-country global comparison of premature births, which was released Wednesday by the World Health Organization and other agencies. Although American hospitals excel at saving premature infants, the United States is similar to developing countries in the percentage of mothers who give birth before their children are due, the study’s chief author noted. It does worse than any Western European country and considerably worse than Japan or the Scandinavian countries. That stems from the unique American combination of many pregnant teenagers and many women older than 35 who are giving birth, sometimes to twins or triplets implanted after in vitro fertilization, the authors said. Twins and triplets are often deliberately delivered early by Caesarean section to avoid the unpredictable risks of vaginally delivering multiple full-term babies…”
- U.S. excels at saving preemies but yet ranks poorly globally, By Karen Herzog, May 2, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Even though hospitals in Milwaukee and elsewhere in the United States excel at saving premature infants, the nation fares as poorly as developing countries in the percentage of mothers who give birth before their child is due, according to the first country-by-country comparison of preterm births. The U.S. has the sixth-highest rate of preterm births among 184 countries and the highest among industrialized nations, says the March of Dimes report, ‘Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth.’ In Milwaukee, nearly 80% of babies who die before their first birthday are born before 37 weeks’ gestation, according to the Milwaukee Health Department. Premature birth is the No. 1 reason babies in Milwaukee die; a total of 100 babies died in the city in 2011, the Journal Sentinel reported as part of its Empty Cradles series on infant mortality…”
Infant Mortality Rates – Milwaukee, WI
Disparity in infant mortality rates in Milwaukee widens, By Crocker Stephenson and Karen Herzog, April 24, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate dropped to a historic low in 2011. But the rate at which black babies died during their first year of life ticked upward, to nearly three times the rate of white babies. ‘We’re pleased with the overall numbers,’ Mayor Tom Barrett said Tuesday. ‘But we have to put more emphasis on the African-American rate.’ In November, Barrett and Commissioner of Health Bevan Baker set a goal to reduce Milwaukee’s black infant mortality rate by 15% and the city’s overall rate by 10% by 2017. ‘We are on track to meet those goals,’ said Geoff Swain, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and chief medical officer for the Milwaukee Health Department…”