Between 2004 and 2007, Medicaid paid for three of every four babies born to women living in Cherokee County.
“I didn’t know that, but I can’t say that I’m surprised,” said Betha Elliott, administrator at the Cherokee County Health Department in Columbus. “We have a history of poverty here.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in Cherokee County is the second highest in Kansas, behind only Wyandotte County.
Cherokee County is in the southeast corner of the state, bordering Missouri and Oklahoma.
More than one-fourth of Cherokee County’s 21,300 residents are on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.
Between 2004 and 2007, Medicaid paid for 791 of the 1,048 babies whose mothers lived in Cherokee County.
Elliott said women in Cherokee County have adequate or above-adequate access to family planning services through their doctors’ offices or through the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. The Pittsburg-based safety-net clinic has a satellite office in Columbus.
“I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think not having access to family planning is the issue here, and I don’t think the women in Cherokee County are having any more babies than the women in any other county,” Elliott said. “The issue here is poverty.”
And the region’s economy, she said, appears to be getting worse.
“We run the WIC (Women, Infants and Children nutrition) programs in Cherokee, Labette and Montgomery counties and since July, we’ve had 1,600 new applications. That’s a lot,” Elliott said. “We used to get to people pretty quick; now, we’re booked three weeks out.
“It’s got to be the economy,” she said.
WIC provides nutrition education and supplemental foods to women who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding. The services are for their infants and children as well.
Eligibility is limited to those living in households at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at dranney@khi.org or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.