US among worst in world for infant death

You can thank the Bush administration for making this country the worst in the world for infant death. From Yahoo 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.

Not surprisingly, the picture is far bleaker in poorer countries, particularly in Africa. A 2005 World Health Organization report found infant mortality rates as high as 144 per 1,000 births — more than 20 times the U.S. rate — in Liberia.

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 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. This is what happens when you have a health insurance program where Americans can't afford basic health care, and an insurance industry that favors excessive profits over that of providing health care to Americans. I don't know what the answer is, but I do believe that the health care system in the U.S. is completely broke, and no one on either the Democratic or Republican side really has a program to fix this mess.

Update: I've been hunting for the statistics on this posting, and I may have found something here. According to this 2006 Save The Children report:

The United States is tied for second-to-last place with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia (in all five countries, there are 5 newborn deaths per 1,000 live births).

The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia,Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn mortality rate is higher than that of any of those countries.

• In the United States, the newborn mortality rate for all races combined is 4.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, but for non-Hispanic blacks, the rate is 9.3 deaths per
1,000 live births.

I think that this is the report that both Yahoo, and ABC News is getting its information from. I have yet to fully look into the report. I found another report titled The State of the World's Children, 2006, and Saving the Lives of Mothers and Children, 2007 report, which also has some statistics on infant mortality rates for the U.S.