A number of folks have pointed me to this article in the New York Times: “American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World.”

via nytimes.com

If you’re the kind of person who scrolls through the comments section–not an activity I recommend!–you’ll see that I commented twice in response to the clever little embedded questions in the article. Having given birth once in the US and once in the UK, I had some things to say. In the case of this article, the comments are really telling. For example:

I suppose one could justify the extraordinarily high cost of maternity care in the United States if the United States had corresponding extraordinarily high rates of maternal and infant health.

Instead, we have extraordinarily low rates of maternal health among developed countries. We’re 49th in the world.

A few years ago–before the Affordable Care Act had passed–I inadvertently facilitated another woman’s ire when I mentioned how excellent my maternity care had been in the UK, and how much I thought the US could improve maternity care. It’s not possible–America has the BEST healthcare in the WORLD! she cried–before calling me a ‘delusional Communist.’

To which I can only say: read Amnesty International’s report, Deadly Delivery (available free) and then we can talk.

In fact, I can say more than that, because I have actually experienced more healthcare services in more countries than anyone I know, and of the developed countries in which I’ve experienced healthcare, the US is the most expensive and least efficient.

As I wrote in jubilant response to the SCOTUS decision on healthcare, it’s by dumb luck and generous government insurance programs in liberal states like California and New York that healthcare bills haven’t bankrupted me and my family.

It should be within everyone’s ability to take care of their health–and that of their children–without going bankrupt.  A recent guest post on Timothy Dalrymple’s blog suggested that Christians who lean left in politics are “Loud on Poverty” and “Quiet on Abortion.”

But might not those things go hand-in-hand? Can anyone read the Times article and not wonder how many abortions happen  because women cannot afford maternity care, and can’t envision alternatives?

Last year I said:

As far as partisan politics go, no less a Republican than Richard Nixon tried in 1974 to make a ‘Medicare for all’ move. You know who opposed it vocally? Ted Kennedy. So what is this about? Massive change in what each party stands for, or total partisan bullsh*t all around?

I really don’t care which initial is in parentheses after a politician’s name. I just like to see policies that are good for the people who don’t have enough money to buy a dental cleaning, MUCH LESS A SENATOR. Besides, didn’t Jesus expressly say something about doing good to those who CAN’T do anything in return?

If we truly value human life, we must strive to find ways to put quality, humane, and affordable care within everyone’s reach.

I’m sorry this post is turning out a bit rambly and excerpt-happy, but my dad recently shared with me reflections on his first visit to a VA (Veteran’s Association–dad is a proud Air Force veteran) doctor, and I think it is relevant:

As I drive home I think back through all the people I have spoken to who have been in this particular
health care system for a while—men and women, young and old, healthy and sick, pregnant or not—and all have said,
without reservation, that they have found the care to be excellent.  In fact, to date I have not heard a
single complaint.  That’s correct: not a single complaint.  Compare this with the constant complaints we
hear about health insurance plans, and the difference is stunning.

But how can this be?  This is a federal program—it’s socialized medicine!

Of course I’m brand new to the system, so perhaps my initial impressions mean nothing.  Perhaps
tomorrow I’ll find myself face to face with the infamous “death panels” of which we’ve heard so much.  

But somehow I doubt it.