Healthcare: Updated Liberal Healthcare FAQ (Part Two)
Infant Mortality Rates
The next chart shows the average number of infant deaths for every 1000 births. The 1991 figures are from the Kangas FAQ, the 1999 figures are from the CDC report (page 130, pdf 135):
Infant Deaths Per 1000 Births
| Country | 1991 | 1999 |
| United States | 10.4 | 11 |
| United Kingdom | 9.4 | n/a* |
| Germany | 8.5 | 4.5 |
| Denmark | 8.1 | 4.2 |
| Canada | 7.9 | 5.3 |
| Norway | 7.9 | 3.9 |
| Netherlands | 7.8 | 5.2 |
| Switzerland | 6.8 | 4.6 |
| Finland | 5.9 | 3.7 |
| Sweden | 5.9 | 3.4 |
| Japan | 5.0 | 3.4 |
The United States is the only country on this list whose number went up. The CDC lists 37 countries and the US ranks 28th there. Cuba and Northern Ireland are tied for 26th. Slovakia is 28th.
This is as far as I can get with the information that's free. I found the source for most of the data Kangas uses, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and was able to get data from the year 2000 to update the Life Expectancy Tables even further:
Male
| Country | 1991 | Rank | 2000 | Rank |
| Japan | 76.2 | 1 | 77.7 | 1 |
| Sweden | 74.9 | 2 | 77.4 | 2 |
| Switzerland | 74.1 | 3 | 76.9 | 3 |
| Netherlands | 73.7 | 4 | 75.5 | 6 |
| Canada | 73.4 | 5 | 76.7 | 4 |
| Norway | 73.1 | 6 | 76 | 5 |
| France | 72.9 | 7 | 75.2 | 8 |
| United Kingdom | 72.7 | 8 | 75.4 | 7 |
| Germany | 72.6 | 9 | n/a* | ? |
| Denmark | 72.2 | 10 | 74.5 | 9 |
| United States | 71.6 | 11 | 74.1 | 11 |
| Finland | 70.7 | 12 | 74.2 | 10 |
Female
| Country | 1991 | Rank | 2000 | Rank |
| Japan | 82.5 | 1 | 84.6 | 1 |
| France | 81.3 | 2 | 82.7 | 2 |
| Switzerland | 81.3 | 3 | 82.6 | 3 |
| Netherlands | 80.5 | 4 | 80.5 | 8 |
| Sweden | 80.4 | 5 | 82 | 3 |
| Canada | 80.3 | 6 | 82 | 4 |
| Norway | 79.7 | 7 | 81.4 | 6 |
| Germany | 79.2 | 8 | n/a | ? |
| Finland | 78.8 | 9 | 81 | 7 |
| United States | 78.6 | 10 | 79.5 | 10 |
| United Kingdom | 78.2 | 11 | 80.2 | 9 |
| Denmark | 77.9 | 12 | 79.3 | 11 |
In these three indicators, the United States is consistently rated lower than other industrialized nations, even though we spend far more money per person in healthcare than any other nation out there.
Now we can still claim that we have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, when you throw places like Afghanistan and Zambia into the mix. But why isn't it the best? Why isn't it even in the top ten of these indicators?
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