To the editor:
Forty years ago, I had an op-ed published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette about Reagan Administration cuts to Medicaid, the federal health care program that covers poor Americans.
It was titled, Health care cuts boost infant death rate.
Notably, the Republican-controlled House has adopted a budget plan that would make significant cuts to this program.
The United States has the highest infant mortality rate of any high-income country, and the black infant mortality rate is more than twice the rate of white infants. The death rates for infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native women are also alarming.
A lack of access to timely prenatal care is considered to be a major contributing factor.
Other high-income nations guarantee public health coverage to all of their residents, while in the U.S, 8.6% of its population had no health care coverage in 2021.
The last paragraph of my op-ed stated:
We need to rethink what we mean when we talk about making America great again. Certainly a great nation tries to solve its important problems even when they affect only a limited portion of the population.
Terry Hansen
Milwaukee, Wis.
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