Childhood Poverty

I decided to take a look at childhood poverty since (as a child) my family was always in and out of being below the poverty level. My father worked in several different lumber mills and was laid off often due to the ups and downs of the economy. The only thing that saved us from living in shelters was my father's parents who were able to financially support our family in hard times.
I checked the internet for childhood poverty in other developed countries and came across a chart (see below) showing United States as ranking second highest in childhood poverty. This is shocking to me! I knew we were up there on the list but had no idea that we sat at 2^nd place. 

I also found another article ‘Social expenditures and child poverty’ that states;

The United States stands out as the country with the lowest expenditures and the highest child poverty rate.

Allegretto (2004).

I have to say I am not only shocked by this information I am also embarrassed for our country! How could we allow this to happen to our Nation’s children?

Chart:

UNICEF

DEFINITION
Child poverty index is defined as the share of the children living in the households with income below 50% of the national median.

Child poverty (most recent) by country

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/child-poverty-in-america.pdf

Showing latest available data.

1	Mexico:	26.2
2	United States:	22.4
3	Italy:	20.5
4	United Kingdom:	19.8
5	Turkey:	19.7
6	Ireland:	16.8
7	Canada:	15.5
8	Poland:	15.4
9	Australia:	12.6
10	Greece:	12.3
10	Spain:	12.3
12	Japan:	12.2
13	Germany:	10.7
14	Hungary:	10.3
15	France:	7.9
16	Netherlands:	7.7
17	Czech Republic:	5.9
18	Denmark:	5.1
19	Luxembourg:	4.5
20	Belgium:	4.4
21	Finland:	4.3
22	Norway:	3.9
23	Sweden:	2.6
	Weighted average:	11.9

DEFINITION: Child poverty index is defined as the share of the children living in the households with income below 50% of the national median.

SOURCE: UNICEF via NationMaster.

Social expenditures and child poverty—the U.S. is a noticeable outlier
Sylvia A. Allegretto
June 22, 2004

http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_06232004/

This Snapshot is a sneak preview of information compiled in the forthcoming EPI book The State of Working America 2004/2005.

Snapshot for June 23, 2004.

Social expenditures and child poverty—the U.S. is a noticeable outlier
All advanced industrialized countries make an effort to reduce the number of children who live in poverty, but poverty remains a harsh reality for many children in every country. The data used in the figure below compare social economic expenditures and child poverty rates of the United States to that of 16 other rich, industrialized countries that, like the United States, belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The United States and these other countries face similar global conditions with respect to trade, investment, technology, the environment, and other factors that shape economic opportunities. Thus, this comparison provides a yardstick for gauging the commitment of the U.S. government to reducing child poverty and its lifelong effects.

The figure (please see link above to view chart) clearly illustrates that those countries with higher social expenditures — as a percentage of gross domestic product, or GDP — have dramatically lower poverty rates among children. The blue line in the figure shows the correlation between expenditures and child poverty rates for all countries. Individually, the Nordic countries — Sweden, Norway, and Finland — stand out, with child poverty rates between 2.8% and 4.2%. The United States stands out as the country with the lowest expenditures and the highest child poverty rate — five times as much as the Nordics.

The paucity of social expenditures addressing high poverty rates in the United States is not due to a lack of resources — high per capita income and high productivity make it possible for the United States to afford much greater social welfare spending. Moreover, other OECD countries that spend more on both poverty reduction and family-friendly policies have done so while maintaining competitive rates of productivity and income growth.

Source: Author's analysis of OECD and Luxembourg Income Study data.

This Snapshot was written by EPI economist Sylvia A. Allegretto.

Health Care An Area of Concern

Health Care

United States vs Canada

Health care is a big problem for most of the lower income parents I assist in the child welfare program.  These parents had health insurance as a family before their kids came into state care. Once the kids are removed from the home the parents lose the health coverage they had through the state. These parents need counseling and treatment services and no longer have health insurance to cover the costs.  However, they can reapply for state health insurance for themselves and go onto a waiting list. This waiting list is endless and most parents are unable to get health insurance in time to start their court ordered services. There are very few parents that are able to get assistance or free services to cover the costs of treatment and counseling, as they wait for their name to come up on the waiting list.

 I would like this country to have a universal health care system like Canada and most other countries. I’ve read that the US will not change to a universal health care system due to patients having to wait for long periods of time to be seen, and that those in the medical field do not earn as much money.  Canada has a solution for this by having privatized heath insurance, for those who can afford it, so physicians can make more money and patients can be seen sooner. I found a cross country health care chart that shows the comparisons of the United States and Canada along with several other countries. I find it interesting that those in Canada live longer, and that their infant mortality rate is lower than ours.

 Please read the following article and see chart below……….

Cross-country comparisons

Direct comparisons of health statistics across nations are complex. The Commonwealth Fund, in its annual survey, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall", compares the performance of the health care systems in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the U.S. Its 2007 study found that, although the U.S. system is the most expensive, it consistently underperforms compared to the other countries.^[15] A major difference between the U.S. and the other countries in the study is that the U.S. is the only country without universal health care. The OECD also collects comparative statistics, and has published brief country profiles.

Comparison of the health care systems in Canada and the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Canadian_and_American_health_care_systems

Country	Life expectancy	Infant mortality rate	Physicians per 1000 people	Nurses per 1000 people	Per capita expenditure on health (USD)	Healthcare costs as a percent of GDP	% of government revenue spent on health	% of health costs paid by government
Australia	81.4	4.2	2.8	9.7	3,137	8.7	17.7	67.7
Canada	81.3	5.0	2.2	9.0	3,895	10.1	16.7	69.8
France	81.0	4.0	3.4	7.7	3,601	11.0	14.2	79.0
Germany	79.8	3.8	3.5	9.9	3,588	10.4	17.6	76.9
Japan	82.6	2.6	2.1	9.4	2,581	8.1	16.8	81.3
Norway	80.0	3.0	3.8	16.2	5,910	9.0	17.9	83.6
Sweden	81.0	2.5	3.6	10.8	3,323	9.2	13.6	81.7
UK	79.1	4.8	2.5	10.0	2,992	8.4	15.8	81.7
USA	78.1	6.7	2.4	10.6	7,290	16.0	18.5	45.4

Life Expectancy vs Health Care Spending in 2007 for OECD Countries.

The data source is; http://www.oecd.org.

Childbirth

     The birth of my third and youngest child was surprisingly difficult for me. Since I already went through 2 other pregnancies and births I thought this would be easy and fast. I was totally wrong! I wanted the birth to be as natural as possible so I chose to use a midwife while still having my son at a hospital. My labor started early on a Saturday so we called the midwife and headed for the hospital. After getting checked in the midwife decided the baby was on his way and should be born within an hour or so. My midwife was very calm in the beginning and had me out walking the hallways then sitting in a jacuzzi tub. As the day wore on and the pain increased and lasted for what seemed an eternity, I finally looked at the midwife and told her I needed a cesarean because I no longer had the strength to keep going. The midwife was silent and had a look of worry on her face. She left the room then came back a few minutes later and said they were preparing for the cesarean. She then said she wanted to check the baby and try one more thing. After a bit the midwife announced that the baby had his arm bent and was resting his head on it. She rearranged his arm and he immediately was born seconds before the nurses came to take me for the cesarean!

     I looked at Afghanistan and childbirth and found that women there have the highest rate of death while giving birth. The babies born also have an increased chance of death due to complications and unsanitary conditions.  Most Afghanistan women give birth at home alone or with a relative present. There are very few clinics and most women are not allowed to leave their homes. As stated in the article it was the search for Osama Bin Laden that brought needed financial support to train Afghanistan women to be midwives and to set up more clinics. Now the concern is as the troops are pulled out of Afghanistan so will the funding.

     I picked this article as it discussed midwives and made me see how blessed we are to have all we have here. If I had been in Afghanistan during the birth of my youngest child we would not be alive today.

                                              

Delivering safe childbirth in Afghanistan Sarah Boseley The Guardian, Friday 6 May 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/may/06/delivering-safe-childbirth-afghanistan