Photo courtesy of Judy Baker

Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, center, tours Cape Coast Slave Castle in Ghana with about 450 other attendees from the Baptist World Alliance meeting.

For a number of days in July, Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, was in a place starkly different from the columned halls of the Capitol.

The two-term lawmaker traveled last month to Ghana with her husband, John Baker, who is pastor at First Baptist Church in Columbia. John Baker is on the Freedom and Justice Commission for the Baptist World Alliance, a group that gathered for its annual meeting in the West African country.

In an interview with the Tribune, Judy Baker talked about changes Ghana is making to its health-care system.

Q: Describe some of the things you saw in the rural areas, as far as just the people there and the health-care infrastructure.

A: There’s still very little health-care infrastructure. There’s a relatively stable government where they’ve had independence for 50 years. As far as health care, the government is working on having a national health insurance plan. In fact, on the street corners you see signs with great big letters that say, ‘Please participate in the state health-care insurance.’ And so they’re enrolling people into the health-care plans. …

When we went out into the rural areas, there were very, very poor conditions. … And there’s a lot of disease. When I was in the hospital, I asked them about what were their top five diagnoses. And as it turns out, four out of the top five diagnoses that they treat in the hospital are actually preventable diseases.

Q: Were there any similarities or great differences you saw between Ghana’s health-care system and America’s health-care system?

A: It would be, of course, mostly differences. Like I said, they don’t have much in the way of prevention yet. And so they’re seeing diseases that could be prevented ... diseases we’ve already conquered in the United States, like tuberculosis, typhoid.

They don’t have a big HIV problem, but it’s growing. They also have a growing polio problem. … And malaria, of course, is the big disease that a lot of us think has been conquered in Africa, but it really hasn’t - in fact, it’s a growing problem.

Q: Would you say is Ghana considered one of the faster-growing countries in Africa?

A: Absolutely. … They don’t have any active, internal conflict. They have a relatively stable government, a relatively stable economy. I would even say they have a growing middle class. We toured a couple of the churches as well; there’s definitely a middle class that is gaining strength and power.

What was interesting also was while we were there, the African Union was meeting in the same city. They were meeting in Accra while our meeting was there. We had several of the African dignitaries that were staying at the same hotel that we were staying. And that was really interesting to follow. My understanding is that the African Union is considering a common federal government where they would provide for common defense and common trade agreements. And potentially, even a common currency like the EU has done. So those are all really positive things, and my understanding is they’ve turned from talking about if this will happen to when this will happen.

Q: From this experience, what do you bring back to use in your career as a state legislator and beyond?

A: I would love to be given the opportunity in this country to completely start over on our health-care system. I know that’s unrealistic. But one of the positive things for Ghana is they’re starting from the ground up on the health-care system. They can design it any way they want to, and they can look at the best models out there for doing it. And I would even like to keep track of them and see what they decide, what decisions they make as far as what the best type of health-care system model is out there. Because that might help us make some changes that we need to make.

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