How ABC News Manufactures a Medicaid Cut Crisis

The federal authorities is shut down, no less than partly, as a result of Democrats are trying to reverse Medicaid spending cuts that have been enacted earlier this 12 months as a part of the One Massive Stunning Invoice. Democrats are refusing to assist a unbroken decision that will hold funding the federal government except it restores these cuts. 

ABC Information is decided to assist the Democrats make their case for reversing Medicaid cuts even on the expense of no matter journalistic credibility they’ve remaining. To wit, “Good Morning America” aired a narrative by senior White Home correspondent, Selina Wang, about “looming Medicaid cuts threatening the already dire maternal well being system.” 

The story claims that greater than 5.5 million ladies already stay in “maternity care deserts,” referencing a 2024 report by the March of Dimes, and argues that Medicaid cuts “might drive extra maternity wards to close down.” 

Virtually every little thing about this story is factually incorrect or severely deceptive. First, the factual errors. The March of Dimes report claims that 2.3 million ladies stay in maternity deserts, lower than half the 5.5 million asserted by ABC Information. ABC might have calculated 5.5 million by including the 3 million ladies recognized by the March of Dimes who “stay in counties with restricted maternity care entry” to the 2.3 million ladies who they are saying stay in counties categorized as maternity care deserts. Even then, ABC seems to not know their 123s as a result of the sum of three and a couple of.3 will not be greater than 5.5.  

However ABC’s inflation of the numbers solely compounds the misleadingly alarmist claims within the unique March of Dimes report. The report defines a maternity care desert as a county that doesn’t have an “obstetric clinician” and doesn’t have a hospital “providing obstetric care.” Utilizing this definition, the report claims that 35% of counties within the U.S. are “maternity care deserts.” 

As you may think, counties with out obstetricians and with out maternity wards of their hospitals are usually pretty rural. In reality, these 35% of counties solely comprise 3.6% of ladies of reproductive age and solely 4.1% of all infants born every year. By highlighting the proportion of counties, March of Dimes overstates the issue by virtually 10 occasions. 

However even the small variety of folks in counties with out obstetricians or maternity hospitals is deceptive. Many rural counties are subsequent to different counties which are much less rural and do have obstetricians and maternity hospitals. Actually, the common particular person in what March of Dimes deems a maternity care desert is simply a 38-minute drive from a hospital that does have an obstetrician and a maternity ward. 

Individuals who stay in rural areas usually should drive just a little longer to get to issues, however driving 38 minutes is not the identical as maternity care being unavailable, because the phrase “desert” would indicate. Moreover, within the overwhelming majority of circumstances infants don’t sneak up on expectant moms since contractions can begin 12 to 19 hours earlier than supply, leaving loads of time to drive 38 minutes to a maternity ward. 

In emergencies when there isn’t as a lot time, most individuals whose counties don’t have maternity wards nonetheless have nearer hospitals with medical doctors who’re certified to assist ship infants even when they don’t seem to be specialists. The price of having each form of medical specialty in each county of the U.S., irrespective of how sparsely populated, can be prohibitively costly. 

The March of Dimes report additionally claims that “residing in a maternity care desert is related to a 13% elevated threat of preterm beginning.” Even this modest enhance in threat fails to regulate for the truth that individuals who stay in rural areas deemed maternity care deserts additionally are usually extra prone to be poor, overweight, and use tobacco and alcohol—elements that enhance the speed of preterm births. It’s unclear how having a maternity ward on the native hospital alters these well being behaviors that exacerbate preterm dangers. 

Curiosity teams, like March of Dimes, have a motive to overstate well being care issues to advocate for elevated well being care spending. Elected officers who’ve constructed careers on advocating for elevated well being care subsidies even have a motive to magnify issues. ABC Information is meant to be within the enterprise of reporting information, not distorting info for advocacy functions. As their protection of Medicaid cuts reveals, ABC Information simply isn’t excellent at its job. 

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