Wherein, I rant and rave that America isn’t the best and greatest nation in the world when it comes to providing our people with low cost, affordable and reliable health care.
A claim, by the way, that is demonstrated once again by an inconvenient liberally-biased fact: that the US of A is at the level of developing nations (you know, like in Africa, say or the Middle East) when it comes to the number premature births that occur here in the home of the brave and the land of the free compared to other developed nations (those damn Swedes, for example) as shown by a study jointly conducted by The World Health Organization, Save The Children, the March of Dimes and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
Fifteen million babies are born prematurely each year, and the United States fared badly in the first country-by-country global comparison of premature births, which was released Wednesday by the World Health Organization and other agencies.
Although American hospitals excel at saving premature infants, the United States is similar to developing countries in the percentage of mothers who give birth before their children are due, the study’s chief author noted. It does worse than any Western European country and considerably worse than Japan or the Scandinavian countries.
I know, I know. Nothing annoys Republicans like the claim that our health care system, with over 50 million uninsured men, women and children, is worse than other developed countries that have a system of universal healthcare coverage for all. Why? Because that would be so Socialistical, Nanny State, Marxist, Anti-capitalist nonsense, don’t you know. They send gazillions of emails listing anecdotes about how terrible the health care systems in France, Japan, Germany, the UK, and — who am I forgetting? Oh — Canada! All counties, by the way that pay mega-billions of dollars (or Euros, Looneys, and so on) less to provide health care to all their citizens.
It’s impossible to convince many opponents of the Affordable Care Act that our nation;s healthcare would be better than anything we have now, even though it has already extended coverage to the adult children of parents until the age of 26, will eliminate the pre-existing condition exclusion, and will, over time, as it has done on a much smaller scale in Massachusetts (that horrible Romneycare!) actually will lower insurance premiums and other health care costs. To them it’s all hogwash. Except that it isn’t.
You see caring and saving babies born prematurely is very, very expensive. It would be much better if all women had access to good healthcare, especially good pre-natal care. It’s one of the reasons we have so many more premature births, expensive or no pre-natal care for millions of women. You see, millions of uninsured women don’t go to “see doctors early in their pregnancies, when problems like high blood pressure or genital infections can be headed off.”
I know “Real Americans” don’t like to hear these uncomfortable truths. It riles them up, much like a little child who doesn’t like being told they have to eat their vegetables. They hold a fit, and call those of us who tell them about these facts that we’re “America haters” and if we report these facts we are unpatriotic Isalmo-socialist-fascists trying to destroy America and all it stands for. It’s sad to hear them whine and moan about a problem that we should all be working to fix, and a problem that other nations have solved already for their citizens where access to affordable, universal health care is considered a right, not a privilege (aside from the purely pragmatic standpoint that those solutions have proven to be more cost efficient, as well).
However, you know what’s sadder? American women giving birth to premature babies at rates equivalent to those found in third world countries:
The United States shares the 12 percent range [12.8% according to the March of Dimes] with Kenya, Turkey, Thailand, East Timor and Honduras, meaning one in nine births is early. The rate in the United States has risen 30 percent [36% according to the March of Dimes] since 1981.
Most European countries, Canada and Australia are in the 7- to 9-percent range.
You see, premature babies are saved at a high rate (about 90%) in the US, but it costs families and our economy a helluva lot because we have so many premies.
The average cost of medical care for a premature or low birth-weight baby for its first year of life is about $49,000, according to a new report from the March of Dimes Foundation.
By contrast, a newborn without complications costs $4,551 for care in its first year of life, the report said. Newborns with other kinds of complications, such as congenital defects, have medical expenses of $10,273 on average in the first year.
Much worse however, is the fact that children born prematurely are much more likely to suffer from disorders and other chronic medical conditions than babies delivered full term. Increased risks of premature birth include higher rates of autism, and other health issues:
Premature babies also face an increased risk of lasting disabilities, such as mental retardation, learning and behavioral problems, cerebral palsy, lung problems and vision and hearing loss. Two recent studies suggest that premature babies may be at increased risk of symptoms associated with autism (social, behavioral and speech problems) (2, 3). Studies also suggest that babies born very prematurely may be at increased risk of certain adult health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease (4).
So my conservative, Tea Party and Republican friends, call me an “America Basher” or “hater” or “Communist” all you like. But stop for a minute and think of the children. You do love babies, don’t you? Healthy, happy babies? Please tell me you do. I’d hate to be wrong about that. I’d like to think that your hatred for all things Obama, including what you call Obamacare (based on — wait for it – your prospective nominee’s health care plan put in place while he was a Governor of Massachusetts), is not so strong, not so irrational that you would see more babies suffer rather than support the only significant advance in our health care system since the invention of antibiotics (by the way, the rate of premies in Massachusetts under that socialist Romneycare is 10.9% or 2% less than our national average – just saying).
I’d like to think you can be better than that, and forego the ill will and spite you bear toward president Obama to recognize the real harm repealing the Affordable care Act would cause to our country’s families, mothers and children. For the sake of our kids, if nothing else.
