by Jasmine Salgado (’26) | February 2, 2024
Puerto Rico’s alarming healthcare statistics show firsthand the dangers of life in poverty. Considering that Puerto Rico is poorer than Mississippi (the most impoverished state in the US), the need for improvement on the island comes as no surprise. That need grew only larger with the havoc Hurricane Maria wreaked amongst the people. With a lack of assistance from the US both before and after the natural disaster, Puerto Rico is left to fend for itself against the larger systemic issues of its healthcare system. A lack of financial resources and power is the ultimate culprit for the island’s serious medical problems.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, there was a 37-42% increase in C-sections for mothers younger than twenty in Puerto Rico, in addition to a 50.5% increase in 2022. The severity of these numbers warrants a stronger effort to understand the reasons for these high-risk procedures. After all, Puerto Rico’s health department states that more than half of the C-sections performed were not medically justified, and more than 80% of the women operated on showed no risk factors that would have called for the procedure. Beyond these factors, each mother has the ability to choose their own method of delivery. Women themselves have their own reasons to prefer C-sections over vaginal childbirth. Body image-related reasons can be taken into account, but what largely influences their decision is the serious fear of pain; after all, most epidurals in Puerto Rico are not covered by insurance companies.
The core of these healthcare issues can be traced back to the root of many other problems in Puerto Rico: money. The damage of the deadly Category 5 Hurricane Maria in 2017 only made these matters worse. Consequently, the lives of the Puerto Rican people were permanently altered as the island’s financial stability largely crumbled. Over 80% of its agricultural value dropped that year as a direct result of the natural disaster, with an estimated economic impact of $139 billion USD. It is no wonder that the healthcare resources and capabilities of the island are not at their best; this tremendous blow at Puerto Rico’s financial stability in conjunction with the lack of US investment has naturally led to underdeveloped and under-resourced medical teams. Healthcare inequality is blatant in instances like these, where places in the world that struggle the most economically are least able to afford medical safety.
Unavoidable poverty affects every part of daily life, with healthcare being arguably most important. To progress to safer, more easily accessible resources for the pregnant women of Puerto Rico and society as a whole, there must be a fundamental change in the healthcare system and thus, the direct correlation with quality and price. Monetary gain should not and cannot be the final goal of this system; it should be safe, affordable healthcare for those in poverty. The question is not if change should come about, but how; if this dangerous cycle continues, the lives of the mothers of today, and the children of the future are at stake.
