The bottom ten states by ranking are
| 1. Mississippi | 11.4/1000 |
| 2. Louisiana | 10.1/1000 |
| 3. South Carolina | 9.4/1000 |
| 4. Alabama | 9.4/1000 |
| 5. Delaware | 9.0/1000 |
| 6. Tennessee | 8.9/1000 |
| 7. North Carolina | 8.8/1000 |
| 8. Ohio | 8.3/1000 |
| 9. Georgia | 8.2/1000 |
| 10.West Virginia | 8.1/1000 |
We need a public option in health care reform, preferably a single payer plan, and we need it now.
We have to fight for quality public health care as if our lives depend on it. Literally. Lives depend on it.
Sadly, the District of Columbia has the highest percentage of Infant Mortality, with 14.1/1000
Infant mortality is defined as the number of deaths of infants (one year of age or less) per 1000 live births.
If the best indicator of the policies followed by our political leaders is the quality of health, education and prosperity that their constituents enjoy, we can safely say that our nations private health care system and Republican leadership have failed miserably.
Many factors effect the infant mortality rate. First and foremost among these factors are the availability of medicine and health care to the public itself, and the amount of wealthy or poverty in which that population lives.
In instances like this many issues seem to converge. Racism, empathy, health care reform, poverty, the economy, all these issues add up to this sad fact; the same people who fear empathy, reverse racism, health care reform and all the strawmen they can raise do not care one bit about the fact that American infants die at a higher rate than any other nation of our stature that has a single payer public health care system and a strong social safety net for those who are less fortunate than others.
In this case, personal responsibility literally translates into “if you wanted to have a better chance at survival you should have been born into a family that wasn’t as disadvantaged. I am not responsible for your problems. ”
The nearly 10-year decline in U.S. infant mortality rates has stalled and disparities between black and white infant mortality persist, according to CDC data, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the data, black infants are 2.4 times more likely to die before age one than white infants.
In 2005, 13.26 black infants died per 1,000 live births, which is similar to the rate in some developing nations, the Journal reports. Among white infants, the mortality rate increased slightly to 5.73 deaths per 1,000 live births, up from 5.66 deaths in 2004, according to the data. Overall, the U.S. infant mortality rate increased from 6.78 deaths per 1,000 births in 2004 to 6.86 deaths per 1,000 births in 2005. According to the Journal, infant mortality rates had “steady declines” in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly among white infants.
CDC officials say the higher rates in large part can be attributed to low birthweights, shorter gestation periods and premature births. Experts say that it is difficult to identify a link between race and higher infant mortality but noted that higher rates of poverty, limited access to health care and dietary differences are possible contributors (Abkowitz, Wall Street Journal, 7/30).
More often than not, those of us who lack basic health care and preventative medicine are those people who are poor and disadvantaged. Often, those same people are minorities, women and people who are not born into the wealth that gives people greater opportunity. It should be telling that, as a society, we have failed to provide for the majority of our citizens as well as other nations that are not as profit hungry.
The divide between the rich and poor in America can be plainly seen here.