"I wish I could say I was surprised," said Jacqueline Blocker, executive director of Tulsa-based Metriarch, a women's public health data and policy nonprofit organization. Oklahoma is tied with Nevada for 48th, ahead of Texas and Mississippi, in the Commonwealth Fund rankings, which scored the 50 states and the District of Columbia on each of more than 30 measures of women's health care. Oklahoma was 50th for maternity care workforce — doctors and nurse midwives practicing in obstetrics and gynecology per 100,000 women and girls ages 15 to 44.
It was 47th for outcomes; 45th for coverage, access and affordability; and 47th for quality and prevention. There were some bright — or at least less-dim — spots. Oklahoma ranks in the middle for low-risk cesarean births, which means women are not being subjected to unnecessary and potentially dangerous surgery.
The state ranks 20th for women older than 65 who have received a pneumonia vaccination. And observers are eager to see whether recent expansions in Medicaid coverage, especially for pregnant women and new mothers, will improve outcomes. But there is also this: Blocker said a recent survey found that 70% of Oklahoma's licensed OB-GYNs plan to leave the state, have already left or want to leave.
The reasons are unclear but seem to involve a combination of factors, including relatively high rates of uninsured women, administrative headaches, working conditions and Oklahoma's restrictive abortion laws. "To be frank, if doctors.