A comparison of Texas and Illinois shows Texas has a little more than four times the area and twice the population. Texas is a red as any state and Illinois is bluer than most. Both states have large cities which are much more liberal than the rural parts of their state. Texans’ revenue comes mostly from the sale of fossil fuel which means they are awash with money now. Back a few decades ago when oil was around ten dollars a barrel Texas was destitute because they don’t have an income tax. Illinois has a moderate income tax which often fails to balance its budget.

            A huge difference between the two states is health care. Illinois is awash with medical facilities. It seems as if every little community has doctors and a clinic or two. Even small towns have a hospital. Few Illinoisans live farther than a half hour from a hospital. Texas on the other hand has hospitals in large cities and some small cities. Many of their larger towns have a hospital with limited capabilities. They are without a full time maternity ward or even an ER staff with maternity knowledge. Several million Texans must drive for hours to get to full service hospital.

            The statistics show that those red states have spent less on health care services and on Medicaid than blue states. The red states policies are why the United States is so “high” on deaths of new mothers. The numbers per hundred thousand births for Germany is 4, Canada is 8, the U.K. is 9 and the U.S. is 24 with over 60,000 estimated near deaths because we don’t track that in the red states.

            Blue states seem to really care more for women’s health.