Star
Gold Member
- Apr 5, 2009
- 2,532
- 614
- 190
.
Our infant mortality rate is a national embarrassment
By Christopher Ingraham
September 29, 2014
<snip>
The U.S. rate of 6.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births masks considerable state-level variation. If Alabama were a country, its rate of 8.7 infant deaths per 1,000 would place it slightly behind Lebanon in the world rankings. Mississippi, with its 9.6 deaths, would be somewhere between Botswana and Bahrain.
<snip>
"Most striking," they write, "the US has similar neonatal mortality but a substantial disadvantage in postneonatal mortality" compared to Austria and Finland. In other words, mortality rates among infants in their first days and weeks of life are similar across all three countries. But as infants get older, a mortality gap opens between the U.S. and the other countries, and widens considerably.
In fact, infant mortality rates among wealthy Americans are similar to the mortality rates among wealthy Fins and Austrians. The difference is that in Finland and Austria, poor babies are nearly as likely to survive their first years as wealthy ones. In the U.S. - land of opportunity - that is starkly not the case: "there is tremendous inequality in the US, with lower education groups, unmarried and African-American women having much higher infant mortality rates," the authors conclude.
<snip>
One way of understanding these numbers is by noting that most American babies, regardless of socio-economic status, are born in hospitals. And while in the hospital, American infants receive exceedingly good care - our neo-natal intensive care units are among the best in the world. This may explain why mortality rates in the first few weeks of life are similar in the U.S., Finland and Austria.
But the differences arise after infants are sent home. Poor American families have considerably less access to quality healthcare as their wealthier counterparts.
One measure of the Affordable Care Act's success, then, will be whether it leads to improvements in the infant mortality rate. Oster and her colleagues note that Obamacare contains provisions to expand post-natal home nurse visits, which are fairly common in Europe.
Research like this drives home the notion that economic debates in this country - about inequality, poverty, healthcare - aren't just policy abstractions. There are real lives at stake.
More proof that Republicans only love the fetus to keep evangies and delusionals voting against their economic interest.
.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Norway ranks as the world's best place to be a mother, well ahead of the United States which dropped to the 33rd spot in the annual scorecard released by Save the Children on Monday.
Our infant mortality rate is a national embarrassment
By Christopher Ingraham
September 29, 2014
<snip>
The U.S. rate of 6.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births masks considerable state-level variation. If Alabama were a country, its rate of 8.7 infant deaths per 1,000 would place it slightly behind Lebanon in the world rankings. Mississippi, with its 9.6 deaths, would be somewhere between Botswana and Bahrain.
<snip>
"Most striking," they write, "the US has similar neonatal mortality but a substantial disadvantage in postneonatal mortality" compared to Austria and Finland. In other words, mortality rates among infants in their first days and weeks of life are similar across all three countries. But as infants get older, a mortality gap opens between the U.S. and the other countries, and widens considerably.
In fact, infant mortality rates among wealthy Americans are similar to the mortality rates among wealthy Fins and Austrians. The difference is that in Finland and Austria, poor babies are nearly as likely to survive their first years as wealthy ones. In the U.S. - land of opportunity - that is starkly not the case: "there is tremendous inequality in the US, with lower education groups, unmarried and African-American women having much higher infant mortality rates," the authors conclude.
<snip>
One way of understanding these numbers is by noting that most American babies, regardless of socio-economic status, are born in hospitals. And while in the hospital, American infants receive exceedingly good care - our neo-natal intensive care units are among the best in the world. This may explain why mortality rates in the first few weeks of life are similar in the U.S., Finland and Austria.
But the differences arise after infants are sent home. Poor American families have considerably less access to quality healthcare as their wealthier counterparts.
One measure of the Affordable Care Act's success, then, will be whether it leads to improvements in the infant mortality rate. Oster and her colleagues note that Obamacare contains provisions to expand post-natal home nurse visits, which are fairly common in Europe.
Research like this drives home the notion that economic debates in this country - about inequality, poverty, healthcare - aren't just policy abstractions. There are real lives at stake.
States with Highest Infant Mortality Rates most Opposed to Obamacare
More proof that Republicans only love the fetus to keep evangies and delusionals voting against their economic interest.
.
