Poll: Reducing maternal mortality needs to be prioritized
A new poll finds that a majority of Texans think state lawmakers should prioritize reducing the number of women who die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. But many of them did not know about a recent increase in the state’s maternal mortality rate.
That’s one of the findings of a newly released report focused on women’s health that is based on a statewide Episcopal Health Foundation/Kaiser Family Foundation survey of Texas health policy issues.
Fewer than a fifth of the Texans who were surveyed knew that the maternal mortality rate has increased. This comes after a report released by the Texas maternal mortality task force made recommendations to improve women’s health before, during and after pregnancy.
62 percent of women and 55 percent of men say state lawmakers should make maternal mortality one of the legislature’s top health priorities, according to the EHF/KFF poll.
Almost six in 10 Texas women say the state legislature should spend more on health care programs compared to half of men.
The pollsters also asked about access to family planning and contraceptive services in Texas. 37 percent of women ages 18 to 44 say it’s too difficult to access those services.
“These results show the increasing need for affordable access to a variety of health services for Texas women before and after pregnancy,” said Elena Marks, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation.
When it comes to specific health priorities for the state legislature, women are more likely than men to prioritize increased funding for mental health programs (63% women/46% men), expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income Texans (50% women/42% men), improving access to rural hospitals (43% women/33% men) and increasing access to family planning and contraception (41% women/29% men).
The survey finds that affordability of health care is also a concern for women across the state. Women are more likely than men to say they or their family skipped or postponed some sort of care in the past 12 months due to high costs (69% women/53% men) and had problems paying for medical bills (44% women/32% men).
Designed and analyzed by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation, the Texas Health Policy Survey was conducted from March 28-May 8, 2018 among a random digit dial telephone sample of 1,367 adults living in Texas. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline (439) and cell phone (928). The margin of sampling error including the design effect for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for both men and women in the survey is plus or minus 5 percentage points. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.