The words “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are part of the Declaration of Independence.” There is a new realization of the meaning of the “right to life;" the right of health is derivative from the right to life, but the poor in our country have their lives whittled away by sickness.
Here are the statistics:
- one-half of all the women who have their babies in public hospitals have no pre-natal care at all;
sixty percent of poor children receive no medical care and never see a dentist; - adults in poor families have four times more disabling heart disease, 10 times more visual impairment, 6 times more mental illness, retardation and nervous disorders; than in families that are not poor;
- the chance of a child dying before the age of one is 50 percent higher for the poor; and the chance of dying before the age of 35 is four times greater for the poor;
- before 1920, the rate of maternal mortality was 79% higher among Negroes than among Caucasians; in 1963 it was 320% higher;
- among the poor who are employed, one-third have chronic illnesses that severely limit their ability to work; no matter how many days others may lose from work because of sickness, the figure, is double for the poor -- and the poor do not have the benefit of salary, sick leave, or a work environment that will tolerate their absence;
- sheer poverty is considered by some authorities to be the third leading cause of death in our cities; and the killer diseases of the poor are tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia, diseases which the more economically fortunate of our citizens have not suffered for a generation. Thus it is no wonder that there has been a tremendous national response to the Comprehensive Health Care Programs of OEO.
