[rsync]

"Healthcare shouldn't be a market. That's why you're paying $40k."

I see your drill down to fundamental issues and I raise you:

Pregnancy is not a sickness. Hospitals are for sick people.

If we reserved hospital birth for women and children with actual medical problems we would allocate resources much more judiciously.

An added benefit: not exposing otherwise healthy (and capable) women to an almost universally disempowering and disenfranchising birth-industrial-complex that seems designed to engender fear, self-doubt and pathological outcomes.

[orwin]

Pregnancy can turn bad (10% of first-time pregnancy, might be higher in country with high obesity rates). In that case, the faster you are with the anaesthetic and the C-section, the better. Also, hygiene. Also, ombilical cords around the newborn necks. Also, the maternities in my country are great (the one we have left at least).

[octoberfranklin]

Yes but hospitals are an essential part of Enumeration At Birth.

Government loves anything that assists its people-tracking machinery. It will never ever ever discourage pregnant women from doing something that would make reliable Enumeration At Birth more difficult.

[array_key_first]

Hospitals are also quite good for giving birth, because human bodies are extraordinarily bad at giving birth.

As fun as it sounds to go back to 25-50% infant mortality, I would prefer we keep this in hospitals and do cesarian sections and other interventions when necessaru.

[octoberfranklin]

Will somebody please think of the children !!?!?!?!

[array_key_first]

Even if I wanted to be as selfish as possible and say "fuck it, kill the babies", it's still a bad position for me. Because SOMEONE has to clean up the dead bodies.

It's also very expensive to be underdeveloped. Simple things go from given to impossible problems. Things we take for granted, like sanitation, because insurmountable obstacles. Just ask any developing countries.

Less infant mortality is good, actually, because I like living in a developed country. I don't want to burn our tax payer dollars on burning baby corpses. I don't want to burn tax payer dollars on a stupidly volatile economy because everyone is dying all the time.