Making America great again?

Dear Editor,

Forty years ago, while teaching kindergarten in the Sturgeon Bay Schools, I had an op-ed published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette about Reagan Administration cuts to Medicaid, the federal health care program that covers poor Americans.

It was titled, "Health care cuts boost infant death rate."

Notably, the Republican-controlled House is considering a budget plan that would make significant cuts to this program.

The United States has the highest infant mortality rate of any high-income country, and the black infant mortality rate is more than twice the rate of white infants.  The death rate for infants born to American Indian women is also alarming.

A lack of access to timely prenatal care is considered to be a major contributing factor.

Other high-income nations guarantee public health coverage to all of their residents, while in the U.S, 8.6% of its population had no health care coverage in 2021.

The last paragraph of my op-ed stated:

"We need to rethink what we mean when we talk about 'making America great again.' Certainly a great nation tries to solve its important problems even when they affect only a limited portion of the population."

Terry Hansen

Milwaukee,WI