In the continued fight between free market healthcare and universal healthcare, the issue of infant mortality is used as a talking point. The United States has the most advanced medical treatment systems in the world today, but it doesn’t always seem fair that some people have access to the best care and others don’t. The trade off for our type of system is that we can continually develop the most cutting edge treatments but they will remain unreasonably expensive until they become more common. The one area we don’t lead the world in is infant mortality, and the supporters of universal healthcare point to this as a major reason we should give up our free market principles. So what really causes infant mortality, and is it a good enough reason to make the switch?
The number one cause of infant mortality is congenital defects; meaning some type of deformation of the baby while still in the womb. There are several factors involved with this problem that need some extra explanation. First, abortion is not as accepted in this country as it is in many other industrialized countries around the world; so in other countries the mother would be more inclined to abort the baby, making it not count toward the infant mortality rate. Second; each individual race has a different rate of congenital defects and they are easier handled when everyone has the same problems, but we in the United States are a melting pot of every race and every problem. Third is prenatal care and this is the only point that has anything to do with our type of healthcare system; because people who have to pay for healthcare are less inclined to go, even if they have insurance. The trade off in countries with universal healthcare is that everyone goes to the doctor too often because it’s free; this eventually overwhelms the system and forces the government to ration care or go bankrupt.