Suffer The Little Children?

By Cernig

From ABC News:

The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.

In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960.

Babies born to black mothers died at two and a half times the rate of those born to white mothers, according to the CDC figures.

The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.

The same report noted the United States had more neonatologists and newborn intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom but still had a higher rate of infant mortality than any of those nations.

Doctors and analysts blame broad disparities in access to health care among racial and income groups in the United States.

National health services are very, very good at neo-natal care. It's mostly well-tried medical technology and the important thing, in respect to mortality rates, is that is be available to everyone. So here's the question for all those free-market conservatives who quite obviously think that there should be limits on the free market in heathcare areas like - oh, abortion - when it comes down to markets or lives:

Are you willing to suffer a few extra weeks before getting your hip replacement under a national health service so that more babies can survive to their first birthdays?