This is just too sick.
Infant mortality rates are often cited as a reason socialized medicine and a single-payer system is supposed to be better than what we have here. But according to Dr. Linda Halderman, a policy adviser in the California State Senate, these comparisons are bogus.
As she points out, in the U.S., low birth-weight babies are still babies. In Canada, Germany and Austria, a premature baby weighing less than 500 grams is not considered a living child and is not counted in such statistics. They’re considered “unsalvageable” and therefore never alive.
Norway boasts one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world — until you factor in weight at birth, and then its rate is no better than in the U.S.
In other countries babies that survive less than 24 hours are also excluded and are classified as “stillborn.” In the U.S. any infant that shows any sign of life for any length of time is considered a live birth.
A child born in Hong Kong or Japan that lives less than a day is reported as a “miscarriage” and not counted. In Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby is not counted as a baby if it is less than 30 centimeters in length.
In 2007, there were at least 40 mothers and their babies who were airlifted from British Columbia alone to the U.S. because Canadian hospitals didn’t have room. It’s worth noting that since 2000, 42 of the world’s 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 pounds) were born in the U.S.
It must be embarrassing to Canada that a G-7 economy and a country of 30 million people can’t offer the same level of health care as a town of just over 50,000 in rural Montana. Where will Canada send its preemies and other critical patients when we adopt their health care system?
This is the sort of thing that happens in societies that don’t value life. Do you know anyone who was born premature? Imagine if that child had never been given the chance to live?
Please don’t say it can’t happen here, because it can, and it will.
H/T to reader Micaela
I had no idea this was happening. When it comes to government numbers, anywhere in the world, they must be parsed.
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And here’s another thing that’s going to happen—those surgeries in the womb? Forget it. Because professional physicians say that the chance of viability is less than 50%, just abort. My sister was pregnant with a baby whose heart failed to develop–one whole side just was not there 6 months into the pregnancy. Everyone–even some family–urged abortion so that she would not have to deal with the death of her infant after only a few days. It was not an option for her. And my 14 year old niece’s heart spontaneously grew, rapidly—she’s had a couple of surgeries, but tell that little softball player that she’s only 50% viable. Pffffffft. DOCTORS never know how things will actually turn out, never mind the GOVERNMENT.
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