*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991.09.18 :  Grants -- Reduce Infant Mortality ("Healthy Start")

Contact:  Rose Mary Romano 301/443-3376 Home:     703/522-1921
September 18, 1991

        SALT LAKE CITY -- President Bush today announced the 
communities selected competitively to demonstrate how the nation
can reduce infant mortality and give its babies a "Healthy
Start."
        The 15 grants will go to:  the Aberdeen Area Indian
reservation communities (19 communities located in Iowa, Nebraska
and North and South Dakota); and to other areas of high infant
mortality in Baltimore, Md.; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston, Mass.;
Chicago, Ill.; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Lake County
(including Gary), Ind.; New Orleans, La.; New York City, N.Y.;
Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; rural South
Carolina; and Washington, D.C.
        Besides having high infant mortality rates, the areas
were selected on the basis of their strong proposals for
coordinated community programs to improve maternal and infant
health care.
        Making the announcement at Primary Children's Medical
Center here, the President was accompanied by HHS Secretary Louis
W. Sullivan, M.D. 
        Secretary Sullivan said, "The Healthy Start community 
programs represent the innovative, cutting edge of the Bush      
Administration's infant mortality initiative.  Each community has
developed a plan to creatively energize their families, their
health service providers, businesses and volunteers in a program
that will wrap pregnant women and babies in a blanket of care.
        "The communities receiving these new funds," the
Secretary said, "are committed to ensuring mothers-to-be access
to care at times and places that are convenient.  And, every bit
as important, the communities are committed to making sure women
know of the services and understand how to get care as soon as
they find they are pregnant."
        The program's goal is to reduce infant mortality by 50
percent in five years in the areas served by these special
grants.  In addition, the program is designed to benefit the
nation as a whole by demonstrating effective techniques and
focusing national attention on what individuals, groups and
localities can do.
        This year, $25 million in new funds has been appropriated
for the Healthy Start program.  The President's budget request
for fiscal year 1992 is $171 million.
        HHS Assistant Secretary for Health James O. Mason, M.D.,
who heads the U.S. Public Health Service, said each community is
tailoring its program to its special needs and population groups. 
Dr. Mason said, "They are developing creative plans to deal with
teen-age pregnancy, inadequate prenatal care, poor nutrition,
smoking, alcohol and drug abuse -- and the absence in too many
cases of family and community support.
        "These communities are going to show the rest of us what
can be done to get this nation out of the basement in infant
mortality ratings."  Although infant mortality in the United
States has been steadily improving, of 4 million infants born
here each year, nearly 40,000 (or nearly 1 percent) die before
their first birthday.  The United States ranks 24th among
industrialized nations. 
        Robert G. Harmon, M.D., administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration, said, "Billions of dollars
are already being spent on infant mortality.  But the special
importance of Healthy Start is that it is a banner that will show
that the coordination of federal, state, local and private
programs can make a vital difference to the health and welfare of
our babies."
        Overall in Fiscal Year 1992, the federal government will
spend over $7 billion to reduce infant mortality through
Medicaid, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Department of
Agriculture's WIC (supplemental nutrition) program.  HHS alone is
spending $5 billion in FY 1991, and plans to spend $5.5 billion
in FY 1992 on maternal and infant health.  
        The Healthy Start grants will be administered by the
Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the
Public Health Service within HHS.

                               ####