Who cares about death rates when our political system is running so smoothly?

[dajoki]

Infant Morality
posted: 8:37 AM, September 28, 2007 by Harkavy
Cuba's not a dead issue in the nutty debate over health care for poor kids.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2007/09/infant_morality.php

Americans owe thanks this morning to Wyoming senator Mike Enzi for clarifying how different our health-care system is from Cuba's.

During heated debate in the Senate yesterday, Enzi zoomed in (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-kids28sep28,1,2313613.story?ctrack=1&cset=true) on a crucial point of George W. Bush's threatened veto of funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a federal-state partnership that provides coverage to about 6 million poor children.

The Senate passed a pretty good compromise to help out those kids. Bush, while asking for an increase of more than $40 billion for the Iraq war, has said he won't spend more than $30 billion on this children's health program. The Senate disagreed — even some of its rock-hard conservatives, such as Orrin Hatch and Pat Roberts — and passed a bill. Roberts, a hardline Kansas conservative, pointed out that Bush is misinformed. You think?

But Mike Enzi is tagging right along with Bush, telling his fellow senators: "We shouldn't create a new federal entitlement and we shouldn't be laying the foundation for Castro-style healthcare, which Americans don't want."

Our kids should be so lucky — rather, our babies should live so long. Enzi and the other senators didn't bring this up, so I will: Cuba's infant-mortality rate is lower than the U.S.'s, according to widely accepted stats from the UN's World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf

The number of infant deaths per thousand live births in the period 2000 to 2005 was 6.1 in Cuba. It was 6.8 in the U.S. In deaths under the age of 5, Cuba's rate is 7.7, and the U.S.'s rate is 8.4

When it comes to overall death rates, Americans have it even worse.

The CIA's World Factbook reveals that the estimated overall death rate in the U.S. in 2007, per thousand people, is 8.26. Cuba's death rate is 7.14. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html

African kids have it worse than anyone else on the planet. But the U.S. is an anomaly among other developed nations. It has a higher overall death rate than the rates of most of those countries, like France, Sweden, and Japan. In addition, the U.S. overall death rate is higher than the rates in the following countries (this is a partial list):

Cambodia, Bangladesh, Kiribati, Yemen, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tuvalu, Mauritius, Maldives, Paulu, Nauru, Grenada, Jamaica, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Peru, Brazil, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Columbia, Syria, Egypt, Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, and Iran.

Yes, according to the CIA, the U.S. death rate is higher than the death rates in Iran, Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza.

If you really want to understand this current problem of health care for poor kids in the U.S., go to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where you can read a readable analysis of the bill (http://www.cbpp.org/9-25-07health2.htm) and a breakdown of Bush's wrong analysis of the issue.http://www.cbpp.org/9-20-07health.htm

As for Enzi, a 63-year-old former Eagle Scout, shoe salesman and accountant, let's just say that his personal financial disclosure for 2006 shows that he ranks only 82nd (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/pfds.asp?CID=N00006249) in the Senate in net worth: His is $190,039 to $853,000. But 94 percent of his investments are in oil and gas, (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/pfds.asp?CID=N00006249) plus he does have at least $50,000 (http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2006/N00006249_2006.pdf) in his Senate credit union account — and the time to spend that cash: His tardiness rate is twice as high as the average senator's.http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/travel.asp?CID=N00006249

More to the point, he got no campaign money from Cuba, but the health-care industry poured $259,591 into Enzi's campaign coffers last year, second only to the support he got from big finance. (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/sector.asp?CID=N00006249&cycle=2006) And the health-care industry hates federal health care programs unless the money goes directly to the industry.

Enzi's PAC, Making Business Excel — get it? Michael B. Enzi, Making Business Excel? MBE, MBE? — raked in an additional $646,567 last year.http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strId=C00392134&cycle=2006

And no surprise here: Enzi gets more campaign money from D.C.-area operatives than he gets from the home folks in Wyoming.http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/geog.asp?CID=N00006249&cycle=2006

Who cares about death rates when our political system is running so smoothly?
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE WORLD FACT BOOK
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html

Rank Order - Death rate

Countries for which no information is available are not included in this list.

Rank Country Death rate
(deaths/1,000 population) Date of Information

1 Swaziland 30.35 2007 est.
2 Angola 24.81 2007 est.
3 Sierra Leone 22.64 2007 est.
4 Lesotho 22.49 2007 est.
5 South Africa 22.45 2007 est.
6 Liberia 22.24 2007 est.
7 Zimbabwe 21.76 2007 est.
8 Zambia 21.46 2007 est.
9 Niger 20.59 2007 est.
10 Mozambique 20.51 2007 est.
11 Afghanistan 19.96 2007 est.
12 Djibouti 19.23 2007 est.
13 Namibia 19.15 2007 est.
14 Central African Republic 18.46 2007 est.
15 Malawi 18.25 2007 est.
16 Chad 16.69 2007 est.
17 Nigeria 16.68 2007 est.
18 Mali 16.51 2007 est.
19 Guinea-Bissau 16.29 2007 est.
20 Somali 16.28 2007 est.
21 Ukraine 16.07 2007 est.
22 Russia 16.04 2007 est.
23 Guinea 15.33 2007 est.
24 Burkina Faso 15.31 2007 est.
25 Equatorial Guinea 15.01 2007 est.
26 Rwanda 14.91 2007 est.
27 Cote d'Ivoire 14.74 2007 est.
28 Ethiopia 14.67 2007 est.
29 Sudan 14.39 2007 est.
30 Bulgaria 14.28 2007 est.
31 Belarus 13.98 2007 est.
32 Latvia 13.64 2007 est.
33 Botswana 13.63 2007 est.
34 Tanzania 13.36 2007 est.
35 Estonia 13.30 2007 est.
36 Burundi 13.17 2007 est.
37 Hungary 13.05 2007 est.
38 Monaco 12.92 2007 est.
39 Cameroon 12.66 2007 est.
40 Uganda 12.64 2007 est.
41 Congo, Republic of the 12.59 2007 est.
42 Bhutan 12.46 2007 est.
43 Gabon 12.45 2007 est.
44 Gambia, The 11.99 2007 est.
45 Benin 11.94 2007 est.
46 Mauritania 11.89 2007 est.
47 Romania 11.81 2007 est.
48 Croatia 11.57 2007 est.
49 Laos 11.28 2007 est.
50 Isle of Man 11.10 2007 est.
51 Lithuania 11.05 2007 est.
52 Senegal 10.96 2007 est.
53 Kenya 10.95 2007 est.
54 Moldova 10.85 2007 est.
55 Trinidad and Tobago 10.76 2007 est.
56 Germany 10.71 2007 est.
57 Czech Republic 10.64 2007 est.
58 Portugal 10.56 2007 est.
59 Italy 10.50 2007 est.
60 Slovenia 10.41 2007 est.
61 Haiti 10.40 2007 est.
62 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 10.34 2007 est.
63 Greece 10.33 2007 est.
64 Belgium 10.32 2007 est.
65 Denmark 10.30 2007 est.
66 Sweden 10.27 2007 est.
67 United Kingdom 10.09 2007 est.
68 Guernsey 10.07 2007 est.
69 European Union 10.00 2007 est.
70 Poland 9.94 2007 est.
71 Finland 9.93 2007 est.
72 Austria 9.84 2007 est.
73 Spain 9.81 2007 est.
74 Togo 9.65 2007 est.
75 Ghana 9.55 2007 est.
76 Slovakia 9.48 2007 est.
77 Gibraltar 9.40 2007 est.
78 Kazakhstan 9.40 2007 est.
79 Georgia 9.37 2007 est.
80 Norway 9.37 2007 est.
81 Eritrea 9.36 2007 est.
82 Burma 9.33 2007 est.
83 Jersey 9.32 2007 est.
84 Uruguay 9.16 2007 est.
85 Nepal 9.14 2007 est.
86 Bahamas, The 9.13 2007 est.
87 Japan 8.98 2007 est.
88 Macedonia 8.78 2007 est.
89 Faroe Islands 8.69 2007 est.
90 Netherlands 8.69 2007 est.
91 Barbados 8.61 2007 est.
92 France 8.55 2007 est.
93 Madagascar 8.51 2007 est.
94 Switzerland 8.51 2007 est.
95 Dominica 8.44 2007 est.
96 Bosnia and Herzegovina 8.42 2007 est.
97 Luxembourg 8.42 2007 est.
98 Montenegro 8.39 2007 est.
99 World 8.37 2007 est.
100 Azerbaijan 8.35 2007 est.
101 Armenia 8.29 2007 est.
102 Guyana 8.28 2007 est.
103 San Marino 8.27 2007 est.
104 United States 8.26 2007 est.
105 Cambodia 8.24 2007 est.
106 Malta 8.19 2007 est.
107 Saint Kitts and Nevis 8.16 2007 est.
108 Bangladesh 8.13 2007 est.
109 Kiribati 8.12 2007 est.
110 Yemen 8.05 2007 est.
111 Pakistan 8.00 2007 est.
112 Comoros 7.95 2007 est.
113 Greenland 7.93 2007 est.
114 Canada 7.86 2007 est.
115 Bermuda 7.84 2007 est.
116 Ireland 7.79 2007 est.
117 Puerto Rico 7.78 2007 est.
118 Vanuatu 7.75 2007 est.
119 Uzbekistan 7.73 2007 est.
120 Cyprus 7.72 2007 est.
121 Aruba 7.61 2007 est.
122 Australia 7.56 2007 est.
123 Argentina 7.55 2007 est.
124 New Zealand 7.54 2007 est.
125 Mayotte 7.53 2007 est.
126 Bolivia 7.44 2007 est.
127 Liechtenstein 7.30 2007 est.
128 Korea, North 7.21 2007 est.
129 Cuba 7.14 2007 est.
130 Papua New Guinea 7.14 2007 est.
131 Thailand 7.10 2007 est.
132 Tajikistan 7.05 2007 est.
133 Kyrgyzstan 7.02 2007 est.
134 Montserrat 7.02 2007 est.
135 China 7.00 2007 est.
136 Tuvalu 7.00 2007 est.
137 Mauritius 6.88 2007 est.
138 Maldives 6.88 2007 est.
139 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 6.82 2007 est.
140 Iceland 6.77 2007 est.
141 Palau 6.77 2007 est.
142 Nauru 6.65 2007 est.
143 Saint Helena 6.63 2007 est.
144 Grenada 6.61 2007 est.
145 Jamaica 6.59 2007 est.
146 Virgin Islands 6.59 2007 est.
147 India 6.58 2007 est.
148 Taiwan 6.54 2007 est.
149 Cape Verde 6.50 2007 est.
150 Andorra 6.45 2007 est.
151 Hong Kong 6.45 2007 est.
152 Netherlands Antilles 6.39 2007 est.
153 Sao Tome and Principe 6.28 2007 est.
154 Indonesia 6.25 2007 est.
155 Seychelles 6.25 2007 est.
156 Mongolia 6.21 2007 est.
157 Peru 6.21 2007 est.
158 Brazil 6.19 2007 est.
159 Vietnam 6.19 2007 est.
160 Timor-Leste 6.19 2007 est.
161 Israel 6.17 2007 est.
162 Turkmenistan 6.17 2007 est.
163 Lebanon 6.10 2007 est.
164 Sri Lanka 6.01 2007 est.
165 Turkey 6.00 2007 est.
166 Korea, South 5.99 2007 est.
167 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 5.97 2007 est.
168 Samoa 5.88 2007 est.
169 Chile 5.87 2007 est.
170 Belize 5.76 2007 est.
171 New Caledonia 5.72 2007 est.
172 Fiji 5.66 2007 est.
173 Iran 5.65 2007 est.
174 El Salvador 5.60 2007 est.
175 Colombia 5.54 2007 est.
176 Morocco 5.54 2007 est.
177 Suriname 5.50 2007 est.
178 Panama 5.44 2007 est.
179 Philippines 5.36 2007 est.
180 Anguilla 5.34 2007 est.
181 Albania 5.33 2007 est.
182 Dominican Republic 5.32 2007 est.
183 Honduras 5.32 2007 est.
184 Antigua and Barbuda 5.31 2007 est.
185 Guatemala 5.27 2007 est.
186 Iraq 5.26 2007 est.
187 Tonga 5.20 2007 est.
188 Tunisia 5.17 2007 est.
189 Egypt 5.11 2007 est.
190 Venezuela 5.08 2007 est.
191 Malaysia 5.05 2007 est.
192 Saint Lucia 5.03 2007 est.
193 Cayman Islands 4.98 2007 est.
194 Qatar 4.82 2007 est.
195 Mexico 4.76 2007 est.
196 Syria 4.74 2007 est.
197 Micronesia, Federated States of 4.66 2007 est.
198 Marshall Islands 4.66 2007 est.
199 Algeria 4.62 2007 est.
200 French Polynesia 4.61 2007 est.
201 Macau 4.59 2007 est.
202 Guam 4.56 2007 est.
203 Paraguay 4.54 2007 est.
204 Nicaragua 4.42 2007 est.
205 British Virgin Islands 4.42 2007 est.
206 Singapore 4.40 2007 est.
207 Costa Rica 4.39 2007 est.
208 Turks and Caicos Islands 4.23 2007 est.
209 Bahrain 4.21 2007 est.
210 Ecuador 4.21 2007 est.
211 Solomon Islands 3.87 2007 est.
212 West Bank 3.85 2007 est.
213 Oman 3.78 2007 est.
214 Gaza Strip 3.74 2007 est.
215 Libya 3.47 2007 est.
216 Brunei 3.26 2007 est.
217 American Samoa 3.24 2007 est.
218 Jordan 2.68 2007 est.
219 Saudi Arabia 2.55 2007 est.
220 Kuwait 2.39 2007 est.
221 Northern Mariana Islands 2.29 2007 est.
222 United Arab Emirates 2.16 2007 est.

This page was last updated on 20 September, 2007

[dajoki]

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