What About the Babies?

Despite being at the top of healthcare expenses (over $6,000 per capita) the U.S. is ranked in the lower portion of the world's nations when it comes to infant mortality rate. How can this be? Many people say that our IMR is so low because we have decentralized healthcare and don't take long term care of infants born into a low socioeconomic status. While this may be so there are at least two perspectives on any problem; an article in the NY Times approaches this particular issue well. Some researchers agree that IMR is high in the U.S. because of our private healthcare while another significant portion claim that the United States is so far behind in terms of IMR because of unnecessary preterm births. Many American women choose to have labor induced early because the last month of pregnancy is so difficult; high number of preterm births means a high IMR no matter how advanced your healthcare is. Yet another aspect of health that is split into two diametrically opposed groups in which no absolute solution can be found proving that a massive healthcare reform may or may not drastically improve the overall health of Americans. Reform is a risky business because if you change something that is working for millions of people based on some disputable statistics and you're wrong then many people will suffer unnecessarily.