When ranked against the 20 richest countries in the world, the United States is #1 when it comes to infant mortality rates. That's an achievement, of sorts. According U.S. News & World Report,
Here's a fun fact. The U.S. placed dead last in child health outcomes, among the 20 wealthiest nations, in spite of spending more per child on health care than any other nation in the world.
Drawing from a 50-year time series study, U.S. News & World Report makes it clear that while the United States kept pace with the rest of world in the 1960s when it came to child health outcomes, by the 1970s and 1980s children between the ages of 1 and 19 were having a more difficult time making it to adulthood.
How significant are these numbers? According to the study, if the United States had achieved "just the average child mortality rate of the other countries over the study period," over 600,000 deaths could have been avoided.
Led by Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, the study suggests that higher mortality rates in the United States are linked to "persistently high poverty rates, poor educational outcomes, and a relatively weak social safety net." Another noted category was the high number of gun related deaths among those between the ages of 15 and 19 years of age.
What this means is that while there are many preventable deaths in America, spending more on our woefully inefficient health care system is NOT the answer. The United States must take another look at social justice and quality of life issues, among other areas.
I wouldn't bet the farm on America tackling these issues any time soon. America's "pro-life" lobby is more concerned with scoring political points over a fetus than they are with trying to improve the environment of opportunities surrounding actual lives. Worse, the "pro-life" lobby is stuffed full of "sanctity of life" hypocrites who have no problem turning a blind eye to the death penalty, torture (especially if it's our guys doing it in the Middle East), the killing of over 100,000 innocent civilians in a reckless war of choice (which many of our "pro-lifers" supported), and civilian refugees.
With these kind of "pro-lifers" in America, it's no wonder we're #1 when it comes to infant mortality in the developed world.
You can read the U.S. News & World Report article by clicking here.
- Mark
In fact, a child born in the U.S. is 76 percent more likely to die before their first birthday than infants born in other wealthy countries, and children who survive infancy have a 57 percent greater risk of death before reaching adulthood ...
Here's a fun fact. The U.S. placed dead last in child health outcomes, among the 20 wealthiest nations, in spite of spending more per child on health care than any other nation in the world.
Drawing from a 50-year time series study, U.S. News & World Report makes it clear that while the United States kept pace with the rest of world in the 1960s when it came to child health outcomes, by the 1970s and 1980s children between the ages of 1 and 19 were having a more difficult time making it to adulthood.
How significant are these numbers? According to the study, if the United States had achieved "just the average child mortality rate of the other countries over the study period," over 600,000 deaths could have been avoided.
Led by Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, the study suggests that higher mortality rates in the United States are linked to "persistently high poverty rates, poor educational outcomes, and a relatively weak social safety net." Another noted category was the high number of gun related deaths among those between the ages of 15 and 19 years of age.
What this means is that while there are many preventable deaths in America, spending more on our woefully inefficient health care system is NOT the answer. The United States must take another look at social justice and quality of life issues, among other areas.
I wouldn't bet the farm on America tackling these issues any time soon. America's "pro-life" lobby is more concerned with scoring political points over a fetus than they are with trying to improve the environment of opportunities surrounding actual lives. Worse, the "pro-life" lobby is stuffed full of "sanctity of life" hypocrites who have no problem turning a blind eye to the death penalty, torture (especially if it's our guys doing it in the Middle East), the killing of over 100,000 innocent civilians in a reckless war of choice (which many of our "pro-lifers" supported), and civilian refugees.
With these kind of "pro-lifers" in America, it's no wonder we're #1 when it comes to infant mortality in the developed world.
You can read the U.S. News & World Report article by clicking here.
- Mark
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