In 2011 Mississippi Governor?Haley Barbour said,?“there’s nobody in Mississippi who does not have access to health care.” Since in his view:
One of the great problems in the conversation is the misimpression that if you don’t have insurance, you don’t get health care.
Yet Mississippi ranks almost last in most national health surveys and struggles with infant and maternal health outcomes, especially in the delta region of the state, that are on par with parts of the developing world.
Dr. James Miller, director of Oxford International Development Group in Mississippi, has been searching all over for solutions to the health care disparities in Mississippi, especially the problems in the delta. He feels he has found a solution in Iran.??According to NBC News?Miller stated recently in Tahran:
When you look at health disparities and conditions of the Delta region of Mississippi, and the systemic failures of providing low-cost access to an impoverished region, this has led to health? conditions basically on the same level of developing countries. Infant mortality rates in the Delta region in some instances are the same as places like Syria or the Gaza Strip ? in the heart of the United States ? I was shocked.
Iran’s system stuck out to Dr. Miller because they have shared struggles with Mississippi in terms of?a lack of funding, lack of trained medical care providers, lack of public transit, and a rural landscape. What Iran has done successfully is set up a system of primary health care providers in the community called?behvarzes. According to the NBC report:
The behvarzes are trained to provide basic health services for villages of up to 1,500 people who live within an hour’s walking distance. Male behvarzes take care of sanitation, water testing and environmental projects. The women concentrate on child and maternal health, family planning, vaccinations and tracking each family’s births, deaths and medical histories. There are currently about?17,000 health houses?across the country serving 23 million rural Iranians.
This is very different from the current state of health care in Mississippi. The state has rejected Medicaid expansion which would have made more people eligible for care and also decreased funding to hospitals and healthcare centers in many of these most vulnerable areas.?This is leading to a decrease in availability of providers in areas already in need of services.
Miller says?Iran’s system is successful because: ?It provides easy access to primary health care services,? and describes how even in urban centers these health houses are just seamless parts of the community. Miller describes it saying:
Located in the middle of a densely crowded block of apartments and shops ? with cars parked so tightly packed it would be a miracle to maneuver one out again ? the health post is well integrated into the community it serves. Just as the health houses are in the smaller rural towns and villages.
Miller is still hopeful about the prospects for future projects despite challenges brought on by international politics that have made things bumpy over the years.
Health diplomacy has been going on for many years; it’s a foundation to build on. Colleagues of mine were frightened to come to Iran, but once here, people were so warm and generous it’s like all those misconceptions just flowed away,? said Miller to NBC.??The people of Iran and America are natural friends and we can collaborate and generate a lot of good things together.
The doctor is moving forward bolstered by a new diplomatic tone of cooperation??I think now, we have a chance to put [the Iranian model] into play and that could be a miracle.?
Edited by SS
