Report: Infant mortality three times worse for black babies in Michigan

Michigan is due for a name change. How 'bout Michissippi?


http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/report_infant_mortality_three.html

Report: Infant mortality three times worse for black babies
Published: Thursday, November 10, 2011, 6:00 PM Updated: Thursday, November 10, 2011, 7:14 PM
By Angela Wittrock | MLive.com


Black infants in Michigan are three times as likely to die before reaching their first birthday than white infants, Bridge magazine reported Thursday.

The mortality rate for black infants in Michigan for 2009, the most recent data available, was 15.5 per 1,000 live births. For white infants, that number is 5.4 per 1,000 live births.

And while Michigan's infant mortality rate has decreased steadily over the past 30 years, it was still above the national average, Bridge reported.

“We’re glad that our infant mortality rates have gone down, but we are still ranked 40th in the nation, which is nothing to be proud of,” Jack Kresnak, president and CEO of Michigan’s Children, a nonprofit advocacy group for children and families, told Bridge. “We have a serious issue here. Babies of color are not seeing their first birthdays.”

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Most Michigan births -- 51 percent -- were covered by Medicaid in 2010.

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"Kresnak said the disparate mortality rates between races is an outgrowth of Medicaid reimbursement rates, which limit access for many poor women.

Because reimbursement rates are so low, many specialty doctors -- including obstetricians, gynecologists and pediatricians -- won't accept patients using the insurance or have to limit the number of Medicaid patients they accept, Kresnak said."