Child death rate higher in United States than other wealthy nations

[Tennis]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.e1ed06b0239c

American babies are 76 percent more likely to die before they turn a year old than babies in other rich countries, and American children who survive infancy are 57 percent more likely to die before adulthood, according to a sobering new study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Comparing the United States to 19 other wealthy democracies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the study found if the United States had simply kept pace with average childhood mortality rates in those countries, 600,000 young lives could have been saved since 1961. That amounts to roughly 20,000 dead children and teens each year.

As the charts above show, in the 1960s the United States had significantly lower child mortality rates than the other rich countries included in the study. But starting in the 1970s, that changed.


Among infants, that shift was driven primarily by changes in our premature birthrate (babies born before full gestational age), which is the highest in the developed world. Our rate of “extreme” prematurity — babies born before 25 weeks — is three times higher than the OECD average.

Among older children, the United Stands stands out on our rate of deaths by injury. In particular, Americans teens age 15 to 19 are 82 times more likely than teens in other rich countries to die of a gun homicide. Among black American adolescents, gun homicides are the leading cause of death in the United States.

The root cause of all these problems is well understood: “Persistently high poverty rates, poor educational outcomes, and a relatively weak social safety net have made the U.S. the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into,” the study, led by Ashish Thakrar, an internal medicine resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, concludes.

Starting in the 1980s, the U.S. childhood poverty rate exploded relative to other wealthy nations. Roughly 21 percent of American children live in poverty, one of the highest rates in the developed world.

American children are also falling behind on education relative to their peers. “Both poverty and education have repeatedly been shown to track along a gradient of health in children, with lower incomes and lower education correlated with worse health outcomes,” according to the report.

These two factors are compounded by a weak American social safety net. “During the period we analyzed, the U.S. spent significantly less of its gross domestic product per capita on child health and welfare programs, compared to other wealthy nations,” the authors write.

Those 600,000 deaths, in other words, are largely the result of deliberate policy choices made by American voters and their elected representatives.

A 2010 study found governing decisions about welfare policies explained up to 47 percent of the observed differences in life expectancy between countries. An earlier study found about 20 percent of country-level differences in infant mortality rates could be explained by a nation's governing style.

“The care of children is a basic moral responsibility of our society,” the report's authors write. “All U.S. policymakers, pediatric health professionals, child health advocates, and families should be troubled by these findings.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.e1ed06b0239c

Crazy.
This should be a front and center topic and instead we got the elites in Washington cutting taxes for the rich and spending even more on the military.
If we can't even provide adequate healthcare for newborns then what are we doing.

[Basileus]

Thank god I don't live in Canada.

[Independent voter]

It's a tough neighborhood.

[Deleted]

I thought leftists love abortions.

[Tennis]

Thank god I don't live in Canada.

Huh? The article says that it is lower in Canada.

[Powerogue]

We're also the best at incarceration rates. So many things we've got higher than other countries why they're hard to count.

[Calfredd]

I thought leftists love abortions.

You must have heard wrong. It's "Leftists love the option to abort".

[Glnger]

This doesn't feel very MAGA....

[bladeXcrasher]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.e1ed06b0239c



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.e1ed06b0239c

Crazy.
This should be a front and center topic and instead we got the elites in Washington cutting taxes for the rich and spending even more on the military.
If we can't even provide adequate healthcare for newborns then what are we doing.

We? When did you become a citizen of the USA?

[Deleted]

You know, one can bring up any reason why the US is a shit country these days and I wouldn't be surprised anymore. Sometimes I feel that some of the Arab countries are doing better than the US.

[Mormolyce]

Just a reminder that this has been in the news for many years now. It's not new.

Add it to the list of things the US refuses to get off its fat ass and do anything about.

I thought leftists love abortions.

Uh, you know if they die between birth and the age of 1 that's not an abortion, right?

I mean, I hope you know that. LOL.

[Deleted]

We're also the best at incarceration rates. So many things we've got higher than other countries why they're hard to count.

Don't see this as an absolute negative, in the EU we let criminals roam free and/or release them once they've only gone through 25% of their initial sentence, even if they have a multiple convictions on their record.

Some countries pride themselves on low incarceration rates, but they don't mention it's because the EU happens to have a tremendous amount of cowardly and soft judges & magistrates sabotaging their institutions.

[Elba]

But... but... rampant capitalism works.

[Jeezy911]

Don't see this as an absolute negative, in the EU we let criminals roam free and/or release them once they've only gone through 25% of their initial sentence, even if they have a multiple convictions on their record.

Some countries pride themselves on low incarceration rates, but they don't mention it's because the EU happens to have a tremendous amount of cowardly and soft judges & magistrates sabotaging their institutions.

Totally agree, could you imagine some gangbanger murdering a family member and getting a 10 year sentence? The drugs are one thing, but soft sentences for hard crimes should never be policy.

[bladeXcrasher]

But... but... rampant capitalism works.

Pretty sure that high mortality rates in African American males from guns and increasing premature births have nothing to do with capitalism in any of its forms.

[Jeezy911]

But... but... rampant capitalism works.

Which is an economic policy, and yes it works if you like to be a rich nation. We all know that "real socialism has never been tried" but all the fake ones have failed so lets not ruin a great country with college kid wisdom.

[shadowmouse]

This should be a front and center topic and instead we got the elites in Washington cutting taxes for the rich and spending even more on the military.
If we can't even provide adequate healthcare for newborns then what are we doing.

Evidently, y'all finally gave in and you're going to race Puerto Rico to become the 51st state!

[Deleted]

The parents probably didn´t have any money left after paying for the birth of the baby to treat it after getting sick if you pay $30,000 for natural birth and $50,000 for a c-section, theres not gonna be any hospital visits for that poor kid.

[Draco-Onis]

Don't see this as an absolute negative, in the EU we let criminals roam free and/or release them once they've only gone through 25% of their initial sentence, even if they have a multiple convictions on their record.

Some countries pride themselves on low incarceration rates, but they don't mention it's because the EU happens to have a tremendous amount of cowardly and soft judges & magistrates sabotaging their institutions.

The majority of the US population are incarcerated for minor crimes or the crime of being poor, unless you think Americans are just more prone to crime than anyone else. Our insane prison population that beat totalitarian China is not something to be proud of, that's like being proud of a giant sore on your face. It is testament to bad laws and our for profit prison system.

[Mormolyce]

Don't see this as an absolute negative, in the EU we let criminals roam free and/or release them once they've only gone through 25% of their initial sentence, even if they have a multiple convictions on their record.

Some countries pride themselves on low incarceration rates, but they don't mention it's because the EU happens to have a tremendous amount of cowardly and soft judges & magistrates sabotaging their institutions.

The US has a higher incarceration rate than any country on the planet.

That list includes police states, oppressive dictatorships and war zones.

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Pretty sure that high mortality rates in African American males from guns and increasing premature births have nothing to do with capitalism in any of its forms.

You think black men are getting shot before the age of 1?

American babies are 76 percent more likely to die before they turn a year old than babies in other rich countries

Sorry, but your race baiting nonsense isn't admissible in this thread.