be honest with you I wish I wasn’t here
this afternoon to talk about what I’m
going to talk about let’s examine how
our national in Texas health status
compares other nations and states and
some indicated revival so-called third
world countries and compare poorly with
others
I’m answering your health and requesting
then facts of man named that are state
officials do better so let’s begin
these are pictures from ProPublica and
NBC News of women who are no longer
alive who died of maternal mortality
leaving children spouses and other
family members morning and behind one
example this is Michelle’s of Olivet
and a newborn and her husband Chris he
took her in his newborn daughter to a
Texas urgent care clinic to try to save
Michelle it was July 26th of this year
just eight days after she gave birth
they had rushed her in after Michelle
complained of tunnel vision a feeling
like she was going to say her eyelids
were drooping and their expression it
turned listless and she wasn’t saying
anything under and yelled her assistance
chest compressions were performed and
she was intubated but it was too late
mr. Harbach after she welcomed their
daughter Clara in a routine labor
delivery Michelle died of a pulmonary
embolism at the age of 35 let’s look at
some of the conditions that make these
tragic that’s possible and let’s see how
bad they were doing how poorly we
compared we are frequently in world and
national cellar
what we find is the mortality cascading
where a lack of health insurance becomes
a lack of access which means not getting
necessary care and people die of
treatable illness resulting demonstrably
in Texas in increased maternal deaths
here’s the key indicator health
insurance coverage that dictates whether
or not people can access health care
including prevention we are 34th out of
35 nations in the organization of
Economic Cooperation and Development the
OECD for having health insurance
coverage and Texas uninsured is the
worst in the United States Texas by the
way was one of a minority of states to
reject the Affordable Care Act’s
expanded federal Medicaid dollars which
would have given us 10 billion dollars
over 10 years to help insure people if
you can’t afford or get health insurance
you usually can’t get or afford health
care unless you are in active labor or
have a medical emergency you have to
forego necessary medical care if you
needed due to its costs over a third of
our national population is foregoing
needed medical care due to costs and
Texas once again is almost the worst
state in the nation thank God for
Mississippi when you’re forced to forego
necessary care you have death yes people
actually do die when you forego
necessary medical care from conditions
that could have been treated and their
lives saved this is called mortality
amenable to health care once again our
country fares poorly ranking 26th among
the OECD nations and Texas is one of the
worst states in the nation at 38th and
deaths
that could have been prevented by
receiving health care services the lack
of basic health care can have deadly
consequences for women throughout the US
and especially for Texas women
the US is tied with Iran yes Iran in the
world and is one of the few countries
including Chad Afghanistan Botswana and
others where maternal mortality is
actually increasing and the only
developed nation where it’s increasing
in Texas
a recent maternal mortality is shameful
and scandalous you can see from the map
the dark blue that we are among the
worst states in the US and Texas
maternal mortality has doubled in two
years from 18.6 to almost 40 in 2012 and
by the way this coincides with Texas
slashing funding for low-income women’s
health services by two-thirds
66% denying many pregnant Texas women
access to wellness preventive and
prenatal and published natal care
meanwhile the California maternal
mortality rate that’s in the blue
dropped by almost 1/2 or 50% from 14
down to 7.3 so what has been done or is
being done about this by Texas in
California well in Texas our elected
officials gutted the funding for
low-income women’s health clinics
closing 80 clinics causing the closure I
should say our politicians again refused
10 billion dollars from the federal
government to expand Medicaid health
insurance for our low-income residents
our legislature decided that the
maternal mortality problem needed to be
what fixed no studied by a task force as
demonstrated by the title of the
legislation the bill title is relating
to the creation of a task force to study
maternal mortality and severe maternal
morbidity and Texas continues to study
the problem here for example are the
recommendations of the most recent Texas
Task Force Joint biannual report
increase access to health services the
after delivery I’m not sure how that’s
supposed to prevent maternal mortality
and morbidity increase awareness of
health disparities and start programs
and increase the ability of women to
self-advocate what I’m not sure who to
who with etc I’m not sure increased
screening for and referral the
behavioral health services that’s great
but we don’t have the clinics and the
professionals to actually provide
behavioral health services increased
staffing resources now that sounds good
but it’s for the task force five and six
really are concerning improve the
quality of death reporting and
investigation and improve the quality of
death certificate data what the hell let
me get this straight
Texas women are dying and the appointed
task force is focused on improving
reporting and data the CDC and the World
Health Organization can already tell us
why women are dying of pregnancy related
illnesses these recommendations are very
discouraging discouraging because the
recommendations are to be charitable
very soft it’s hard to see them having
any tangible concrete impact preventing
Texas maternal mortality and morbidity
in the foreseeable future now let’s look
at what California has done first thing
is to understand that California health
officials California officials in
general decided that health of their
population and pregnant moms was
important they were the first state to
establish you know Obama care
marketplace or exchange they did not
slash women’s health services funding
they did accept federal dollars and
expand Medicaid and they formed the
California maternal quality care
collaborative and concretely effectively
addressed some of the causes of maternal
mortality this collaborative created
maternal toolkits to improve health care
for leading causes of preventable or
preventable mortality among pregnant and
postpartum women I urge you in fact
to get on your computer and look up the
California motor quality care
collaborative these toolkits include
ones for prevention and care for OB
hemorrhage the largest killer until
recently of maternal death preeclampsia
recognition and response they also have
other important prevention toolkits and
process such as cardiovascular disease
and maternal deep vein thrombosis such
as the pulmonary embolus that killed
Michelle Zavala all prevention tool kits
include detailed best practice tools and
articles care guidelines and checklist
OB crash carts inventory lists
implementation guides and flow charts
and professional education slide sets
it’s very concrete very detailed as we
saw since the collaboratives inception
and the other actions the state has
taken California has seen its maternal
mortality dramatically declined by
almost 1/2 let’s go back to where we
started pregnant women are dying there
is a mortality cascade where a lack of
health insurance leads to a lack of
access which leads to not getting
necessary care and this causes people to
die of treatable illnesses and increases
maternal deaths by the way this is on us
we’re getting what we tolerate and
allowed to happen in Austin the laws the
regulations and the mortality that we
accept lives are at stake
literally when are we going to demand
better we be have the power and now is
the time to educate our elected
officials to call and visit our state
representatives and Senators the
governor and lieutenant governor’s
office to demand and advocate for
Medicaid expansion and the resurrection
and refunding of all those low-income
women’s health clinics that were open
before defunding shuttered them if they
don’t do that if they refuse throw them
out of office
[Music]
[Applause]
the time is now to attend the Texas
mortality and morbidity task force
meetings and demand that the task force
partner with the California
collaborative to institute those
concrete actions much as Oregon and
Washington have done with California as
well also now is the time to urge women
to ask their OB if the hospital he or
she delivers that has the California
protocols and toolkits in place if it
doesn’t hurt ask her doctor to find such
a hospital or see if she can change her
OB to one that does deliver it such a
hospital again
the time is now if we don’t educate in
demand better from the politicians and
the task force Texas women will continue
to suffer deadly results in our Texas
wives mothers daughters sisters and
other women are at risk of dying of
childbirth and they deserve better if as
Texas singer-songwriter Willis Allen
Ramsey sang in 1972 then Texas women is
Texas gold why are they being treated
like tinfoil please help
[Applause]
this afternoon to talk about what I’m
going to talk about let’s examine how
our national in Texas health status
compares other nations and states and
some indicated revival so-called third
world countries and compare poorly with
others
I’m answering your health and requesting
then facts of man named that are state
officials do better so let’s begin
these are pictures from ProPublica and
NBC News of women who are no longer
alive who died of maternal mortality
leaving children spouses and other
family members morning and behind one
example this is Michelle’s of Olivet
and a newborn and her husband Chris he
took her in his newborn daughter to a
Texas urgent care clinic to try to save
Michelle it was July 26th of this year
just eight days after she gave birth
they had rushed her in after Michelle
complained of tunnel vision a feeling
like she was going to say her eyelids
were drooping and their expression it
turned listless and she wasn’t saying
anything under and yelled her assistance
chest compressions were performed and
she was intubated but it was too late
mr. Harbach after she welcomed their
daughter Clara in a routine labor
delivery Michelle died of a pulmonary
embolism at the age of 35 let’s look at
some of the conditions that make these
tragic that’s possible and let’s see how
bad they were doing how poorly we
compared we are frequently in world and
national cellar
what we find is the mortality cascading
where a lack of health insurance becomes
a lack of access which means not getting
necessary care and people die of
treatable illness resulting demonstrably
in Texas in increased maternal deaths
here’s the key indicator health
insurance coverage that dictates whether
or not people can access health care
including prevention we are 34th out of
35 nations in the organization of
Economic Cooperation and Development the
OECD for having health insurance
coverage and Texas uninsured is the
worst in the United States Texas by the
way was one of a minority of states to
reject the Affordable Care Act’s
expanded federal Medicaid dollars which
would have given us 10 billion dollars
over 10 years to help insure people if
you can’t afford or get health insurance
you usually can’t get or afford health
care unless you are in active labor or
have a medical emergency you have to
forego necessary medical care if you
needed due to its costs over a third of
our national population is foregoing
needed medical care due to costs and
Texas once again is almost the worst
state in the nation thank God for
Mississippi when you’re forced to forego
necessary care you have death yes people
actually do die when you forego
necessary medical care from conditions
that could have been treated and their
lives saved this is called mortality
amenable to health care once again our
country fares poorly ranking 26th among
the OECD nations and Texas is one of the
worst states in the nation at 38th and
deaths
that could have been prevented by
receiving health care services the lack
of basic health care can have deadly
consequences for women throughout the US
and especially for Texas women
the US is tied with Iran yes Iran in the
world and is one of the few countries
including Chad Afghanistan Botswana and
others where maternal mortality is
actually increasing and the only
developed nation where it’s increasing
in Texas
a recent maternal mortality is shameful
and scandalous you can see from the map
the dark blue that we are among the
worst states in the US and Texas
maternal mortality has doubled in two
years from 18.6 to almost 40 in 2012 and
by the way this coincides with Texas
slashing funding for low-income women’s
health services by two-thirds
66% denying many pregnant Texas women
access to wellness preventive and
prenatal and published natal care
meanwhile the California maternal
mortality rate that’s in the blue
dropped by almost 1/2 or 50% from 14
down to 7.3 so what has been done or is
being done about this by Texas in
California well in Texas our elected
officials gutted the funding for
low-income women’s health clinics
closing 80 clinics causing the closure I
should say our politicians again refused
10 billion dollars from the federal
government to expand Medicaid health
insurance for our low-income residents
our legislature decided that the
maternal mortality problem needed to be
what fixed no studied by a task force as
demonstrated by the title of the
legislation the bill title is relating
to the creation of a task force to study
maternal mortality and severe maternal
morbidity and Texas continues to study
the problem here for example are the
recommendations of the most recent Texas
Task Force Joint biannual report
increase access to health services the
after delivery I’m not sure how that’s
supposed to prevent maternal mortality
and morbidity increase awareness of
health disparities and start programs
and increase the ability of women to
self-advocate what I’m not sure who to
who with etc I’m not sure increased
screening for and referral the
behavioral health services that’s great
but we don’t have the clinics and the
professionals to actually provide
behavioral health services increased
staffing resources now that sounds good
but it’s for the task force five and six
really are concerning improve the
quality of death reporting and
investigation and improve the quality of
death certificate data what the hell let
me get this straight
Texas women are dying and the appointed
task force is focused on improving
reporting and data the CDC and the World
Health Organization can already tell us
why women are dying of pregnancy related
illnesses these recommendations are very
discouraging discouraging because the
recommendations are to be charitable
very soft it’s hard to see them having
any tangible concrete impact preventing
Texas maternal mortality and morbidity
in the foreseeable future now let’s look
at what California has done first thing
is to understand that California health
officials California officials in
general decided that health of their
population and pregnant moms was
important they were the first state to
establish you know Obama care
marketplace or exchange they did not
slash women’s health services funding
they did accept federal dollars and
expand Medicaid and they formed the
California maternal quality care
collaborative and concretely effectively
addressed some of the causes of maternal
mortality this collaborative created
maternal toolkits to improve health care
for leading causes of preventable or
preventable mortality among pregnant and
postpartum women I urge you in fact
to get on your computer and look up the
California motor quality care
collaborative these toolkits include
ones for prevention and care for OB
hemorrhage the largest killer until
recently of maternal death preeclampsia
recognition and response they also have
other important prevention toolkits and
process such as cardiovascular disease
and maternal deep vein thrombosis such
as the pulmonary embolus that killed
Michelle Zavala all prevention tool kits
include detailed best practice tools and
articles care guidelines and checklist
OB crash carts inventory lists
implementation guides and flow charts
and professional education slide sets
it’s very concrete very detailed as we
saw since the collaboratives inception
and the other actions the state has
taken California has seen its maternal
mortality dramatically declined by
almost 1/2 let’s go back to where we
started pregnant women are dying there
is a mortality cascade where a lack of
health insurance leads to a lack of
access which leads to not getting
necessary care and this causes people to
die of treatable illnesses and increases
maternal deaths by the way this is on us
we’re getting what we tolerate and
allowed to happen in Austin the laws the
regulations and the mortality that we
accept lives are at stake
literally when are we going to demand
better we be have the power and now is
the time to educate our elected
officials to call and visit our state
representatives and Senators the
governor and lieutenant governor’s
office to demand and advocate for
Medicaid expansion and the resurrection
and refunding of all those low-income
women’s health clinics that were open
before defunding shuttered them if they
don’t do that if they refuse throw them
out of office
[Music]
[Applause]
the time is now to attend the Texas
mortality and morbidity task force
meetings and demand that the task force
partner with the California
collaborative to institute those
concrete actions much as Oregon and
Washington have done with California as
well also now is the time to urge women
to ask their OB if the hospital he or
she delivers that has the California
protocols and toolkits in place if it
doesn’t hurt ask her doctor to find such
a hospital or see if she can change her
OB to one that does deliver it such a
hospital again
the time is now if we don’t educate in
demand better from the politicians and
the task force Texas women will continue
to suffer deadly results in our Texas
wives mothers daughters sisters and
other women are at risk of dying of
childbirth and they deserve better if as
Texas singer-songwriter Willis Allen
Ramsey sang in 1972 then Texas women is
Texas gold why are they being treated
like tinfoil please help
[Applause]
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