To the editor: As the chief producer of a brief documentary on obstetrics deserts, I’m compelled to answer Dr. Anna Reinert’s insightful article on the closure of hospital labor and supply items. This disaster is alarming and harmful.
Labor and supply items can’t operate solely on supply days. They require fixed “stand-by” capability, together with surgeons, working room groups and anesthesiologists for emergency C-sections. These important prices aren’t being adequately coated by Medi-Cal or non-public insurers.
To deal with this, federal and state officers, together with giant purchasers of personal insurance coverage, should mandate that each one insurers cowl these important stand-by prices. Govt motion from the Biden administration may present a right away resolution and garner assist from rural and under-served communities throughout America.
Susan Reynolds, M.D., Pacific Palisades
