A Comment About

Today’s Health Insurance Ain’t Insurance

March 7, 2008 - 1:00 am - by Charlie Martin
Jordan
2008-03-07 11:02:08

…is a defective product (as measured by health outcomes)…

Oh good lord, don’t you socialist morons ever get tired of repeating this? The methodology for computing these outcomes varies from country to country:

While the United States reports every case of infant mortality, many other countries do not. For example, a 2006 article in U.S. News & World Report states – without any supporting citation – that “First, it’s shaky ground to compare U.S. infant mortality with reports from other countries. The United States counts all births as live if they show any sign of life, regardless of prematurity or size. This includes what many other countries report as stillbirths. In Austria and Germany, fetal weight must be at least 500 grams (1 pound) to count as a live birth; in other parts of Europe, such as Switzerland, the fetus must be at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. In Belgium and France, births at less than 26 weeks of pregnancy are registered as lifeless. And some countries don’t reliably register babies who die within the first 24 hours of birth. Thus, the United States is sure to report higher infant mortality rates. For this very reason, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which collects the European numbers, warns of head-to-head comparisons by country.