Blacks and Health Care

Despite spending 2-to-1 on health care, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. continues to exceed that of other industrialized nations. And black women have higher than average rates of premature births, even when receiving regular medical care. The thought that blacks face exceptional health risks even before birth is disheartening, but no more so than the reality that HIV/AIDS, high blood pressure, and diabetes all disproportionately affect black Americans. It'll be interesting to see how universal health care shakes out in communities already facing crisis-level health problems.

Full story by Gardiner Harris at The New York Times:

Infant deaths in the United States declined 2 percent in 2006, government researchers reported Wednesday, but the rate still remains well above that of most other industrialized countries and is one of many indicators suggesting that Americans pay more but get less from their health care system.

Infant mortality has long been considered one of the most important indicators of the health of a nation and the quality of its medical system. In 1960, the United States ranked 12th lowest in the world, but by 2004, the latest year for which comparisons were issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that ranking had dropped to 29th lowest.