1. tsmith
  2. In which Mississippi performs better than Pennsylvania...

In which Mississippi performs better than Pennsylvania...

By tsmith on July 12, 2006.

Some interesting public health stories on MSNBC today:

In the first, they highlight discrepancies in newborn testing between states.

States have nearly doubled the number of newborns being tested for a host of rare but devastating genetic diseases -- yet where you live still determines just how protected your baby will be, the March of Dimes reports.

For almost two years, specialists have urged that every U.S. newborn be checked for 29 disorders, to detect the few thousand who will need early treatment to avoid serious, even life-threatening, problems.

The geographic disparity is gradually easing: As of June 1, a total of 31 states required testing for more than 20 of those disorders, says the new analysis. Five states -- Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia -- as well as Washington, D.C., required testing every newborn for the entire list of 29 conditions.

The good news:

That's up from 23 states the previous year, and covered 64 percent of the nation's babies, nearly double the number tested in 2005.

The bad news:

Eight states -- Arkansas, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia -- still were testing for fewer than 10 of those 29 conditions, the analysis found. Remaining states fell in the middle, although at least one, Wyoming, was scheduled to begin more comprehensive testing this month.

Pennsylvania? What's wrong with you? You're usually so forward-thinking...

I won't quote the entire article, but it includes anecdotes of what can happen when testing isn't done, and what you can do if your state is one of those toward the bottom.

A second story highlights Ben and Jerry's founders returning to social activism:

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are leading the company's "American Pie" campaign, designed to persuade consumers to demand a change in spending priorities. Their goal is to shift $13 billion that now pays to maintain thousands of nuclear bombs into pediatric health insurance, schools or other programs for kids.

"Do you really need 10,000 nuclear bombs?" Greenfield asked in a telephone interview from Washington, where he and Cohen kicked off the campaign Tuesday.

For those of you who haven't paid a lot of attention to the comings and goings of said Ben & Jerry and wonder when they ever left social activism, the article covers that angle as well.

Tags
Policy
public health

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Pennsylania, forward thinking? This is the state that elected Rick Santorum and Curt Weldon...

By Evil Monkey (not verified) on 12 Jul 2006 #permalink

Tara,

You're obviously not familiar with the common description of PA. It's Philly on the right, Pittsburgh on the left and Alabama in between.

By Marine Geologist (not verified) on 12 Jul 2006 #permalink

:) Yeah, I know, but as far as health measures, they're usually at least in the top half.

I used to live in Philly. This is by far the most toxic environment i've ever lived in. Fortunately, the growths and such disappeared a few months after moving out of town. Unfortunately, moving was not an option for my sunday school students with cancer.

Forward thinking? Perhaps it's a breeding ground that will eventually turn out toxin resistant humans. Evolution in action.

Just one of those 10,000 nukes could be used to solve the problems in Philly in a definitive way.

Hmm. Maybe none of this is funny, after all.

Mississippi has a fairly good public health system for pregnant and children built on the backs of a 3/1 Medicaid match, with 60-70% of the children/mothers eligible.

We also have the highest vaccination rate in the nation (or did for years). The reason is that vaccinations are free to the recipients, the medicine is free (provided by the MDOH) to the physicians, and the physicians are paid $10.50.

Also, the MDOH tracks the billing for vaccines -- so a doctor (private or public), hospital, etc. can login on the internet and pull the vaccination records of any child in the state. Finally, we have a mandatory vaccination policy that is stronger than any other state -- if your kid is in daycare, they are up to date on their vaccines. The only exemptions are for health -- as personally verified by a MDOH physician.

Unfortunately, the govenor just moved to eliminate the Healthy Starts program (vitamins, education, etc) for poverty level mothers in the state (even with a $50million surplus)