Thursday, August 23, 2007

Health Care: From Canada's #3 City to US's #356


Chances of having identical quadruplets:
1 in 13 million.

Chances of having 4 neonatal intensive-care beds available in Canada's 3rd largest city:
Not very good.

Chances of having 4 neonatal intensive-care beds available in America's 356th largest city:
Excellent.

On Aug. 12, Karen Jepp gave birth to identical quadruplets in Great Falls, Mont. The mother of this one-in-13 million event isn't a Montana resident, however. She's a Canadian. She and her husband were sent from Calgary, Alberta (population 1 million-plus), to Great Falls (
pop. 57,000) to deliver the children because, the Calgary Herald reports, "no Canadian hospital had enough neonatal intensive-care beds for all four babies."

From the
third-largest city in Canada to a smallish American city (ranked #356 in the U.S., in a state with fewer people than Calgary). This speaks well of Canadian health care? Jepp is the fifth Alberta mother who had to travel to the U.S. this year to give birth because of the neonatal shortages in Calgary.

Incidentally, all four daughters are alive and healthy — uncommon in multiple births. We shudder to think how they'd have fared in Canada or Great Britain, let alone Cuba.

3 Comments:

At 8/23/2007 9:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a learned academic man like yourself should know, anecdotal evidence is never the best method to prove a point. It's a cute story and nothing more.

What's more telling is the fact that infant mortality in the US is significantly higher than in Canada. See http://www.amptoons.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/infant_mortrate_2.gif.

To use your terminology:

Bottom line:

Universal Health Care works!

 
At 8/24/2007 2:34 PM, Blogger juandos said...

Hmmm, A @ 9:20 P.M. links us to a graph but is the graph from a credible source?

We have this possibly questionable report to consider: Us Infant Mortality At Record Low ...

The always questionable March of Dimes produced this bit: United States - 6.9/1000

The CDC released the following in May of this year: Overall Infant Mortality Rate in United States Largely Unchanged: Rates Among Black Women More than Twice that of White Women

(skip)

Non-Hispanic black women had the highest infant mortality rate in the United States in 2004 – 13.60 per 1,000 live births compared to 5.66 per 1,000 births among non-Hispanic white women. Women of Cuban ethnicity in the United States had the lowest infant mortality rate – 4.55 per 1,000 live births.

Other infant mortality rates in the United States broken down by race and Hispanic origin include American Indian (8.45), Puerto Rican (7.82), Mexican (5.47), Asian/Pacific Islander (4.67) and Central/South American (4.65).

(skip)

Nearly half (46 percent) of infant deaths to non-Hispanic black women and 41 percent of infant deaths to Puerto Rican women were due to preterm-related causes of death. The percentage was somewhat lower for other race/ethnic groups.
Preterm-related infant mortality rates were more than three times higher for non-Hispanic black (6.29) than for non-Hispanic white (1.82) mothers. The preterm-related infant mortality rate for Puerto Rican (3.19) mothers was 75 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white mothers. Preterm-related infant mortality rates for American Indian (1.89), Mexican (1.76), and Asian or Pacific Islander (1.65) women were not significantly different from the rate for non-Hispanic white women.
In 2004, the preterm-related infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black mothers was actually higher than the infant mortality rate for all causes for non-Hispanic white, Mexican, and Asian or Pacific Islander women

( there is more )

What are these, "preterm-related causes of death"?

Is it due to lifestyle differences?

Consider the following also: UNINSURED IN AMERICA ...

There's a lot there that might answer your questions A that shows us what an abysmal failure socialize medicine is...

Dr. Perry has had few recent postings also showing us the downsides of socialized medicine...

 
At 8/28/2007 2:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chances of having complete health care available for every Canadian citizen anywhere in Canada regardless of their ability to pay: Guaranteed (Even if the government has to spend extra to take care of a 1 in 13,000,000 situation by using resources in another country.

Chances of having over 47,000,000 American citizens not having access to complete health care regardless of their ability to pay: Excellent.

 

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