More Dead Babies

With all the problems of the economy of late, and the election of Barack Obama, a story seems to have slipped though the cracks, and I've yet to see it reported.

The CIA World Fact Book have released the 2008 estimates for our infant mortality rate here in the USA. They don't make for happy reading, since we now sit behind 41 other nations; a significant drop from the last time new numbers were released.

In fact your baby is less likely to die in the first year if it is born and raised in any of these countries:

1. Singapore
2. Sweden
3. Japan
4. Hong Kong
5. Iceland
6. France
7. Finland
8. Anguilla
9. Norway
10. Malta
11. Czech Republic
12. Andorra
13. Germany
14. Switzerland
15. Spain
16. Israel
17. Macau
18. Slovenia
19. Denmark
20. Austria
21. Belgium
22. Australia
23. Liechtenstein
24. Guernsey
25. Luxembourg
    
26. Netherlands
27. Portugal
28. Gibraltar
    
29. United Kingdom
30. New Zealand
31. Jersey
32. Canada
33. Republic of Ireland
34. Monaco
35. Greece
36. San Marino
37. Taiwan
38. Italy
39. Isle of Man
40. Cuba
41. South Korea
42. United States
    

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, our health care system here in America sucks. It is the most expensive in the world per capita. Yet it leaves millions of American adults and children excluded from receiving quality health care. And the result is dead babies.

What is so very odd about America is that the religious right continues to bang on about abortion issues, the fact that evil Obama is allowing charities to mention the word abortion once again without fear of sanctions, and the evils of socialized medicine. Yet our figures continue to slip, year in, year out. Our system is broken, and it is literally killing babies. But still, all the protesters want to do is whine about the evils of abortion.

Seriously though, why do you want to force women to have babies, if you are going to stand by and let them die in their first year?

This infant mortality rate issue is a national scandal, and one we continue to ignore while health insurance companies and other medical corporations continue to rake in their profits. The answer is a RADICAL re-think of our health care system and an acceptance that our current system is not working. As long as we blindly ignore what is going on and campaign against socialized medicine and abortion this problem will continue to get worse.

Update: I also noticed that the United Nation figures for life expectancy of a child to the age of five places America 36th in the world. Meaning, of course that in 35 other nations a child is more likely to live to the age of five than here in the US. No doubt also as a result of poverty and exclusionary health care issues.