Infant and Child Mortality in the U.S.—Nothing to Brag About
By the Children's Health Defense Team
The United States spends over $230 billion annually on children’s personal health care, representing about 8.4% of total U.S. health care spending, but these substantial outlays are not translating into a rosy health picture for American children.
Instead, international comparisons show that the U.S. has ranked lowest among twenty developed nations for child mortality since the 1990s and currently ranks behind 55 other countries worldwide for infant mortality. At present, U.S.-born children are 76% more likely to die before their first birthday than infants in other wealthy nations.
With these disproportionately high rates of infant and child morality in the U.S., policy-makers should be acknowledging that vulnerable babies abound. At the same time, they should be taking note of the fact that vulnerabilities are not always apparent and that the success of early 20th-century initiatives to reduce infant mortality occurred before widespread use of vaccination and medical technologies.
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