{"id":38918,"date":"2026-08-11T16:51:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38918"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:51:48","slug":"more-than-one-third-of-u-s-counties-are-maternity-care-deserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=38918","title":{"rendered":"More Than One Third of U.S. Counties Are Maternity Care Deserts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"paragraph-content\">\n<p><h2 id=\"why-maternity-care-deserts-happen\" class=\"scroll-mt-24 font-editorial text-black-coffee text-mobile-h2 lg:scroll-mt-28 lg:text-h2 mb-4\">Why maternity care deserts happen<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalpartnership.org\/report\/republican-budget-bill-could-close-over-140-rural-labor-and-delivery-units\/\" target=\"undefined\">A 2025 analysis<\/a> from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that 131 rural hospitals across the country with labor and delivery units were at risk of closure or severe service cutbacks because of H.R. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Maternity care deserts happen because of a few factors. Ob-gyn\u00a0 services often lose money for hospitals because they have to be staffed with medical providers, including anesthesiologists, around the clock. In rural areas with low birth rates, hospitals have to spend the money to keep obstetric units staffed and open, even when there are relatively few births generating revenue. And because rural areas have high shares of patients on Medicaid, the hospitals also don\u2019t receive adequate reimbursement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a double whammy,\u201d Warren says. \u201cTheir birth volume is low, so they have fewer folks coming through to make those payments, but also, when they do get those payments, it&#8217;s likely to be lower because it&#8217;s more likely to be Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why maternity care deserts happen A 2025 analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that 131 rural hospitals across the country with labor and delivery units were at risk of closure or severe service cutbacks because of H.R. 1.\u00a0 Maternity care deserts happen because of a few factors. Ob-gyn\u00a0 services often lose&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt6ba4eddc68a73d44\/6a7a1d17bf22b27c4595b5f0\/nvmc.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}