[patio11]

Infant mortality rates are not a fair metric for comparison because the point of viability is significantly earlier in the US that in most other countries in the world.

People may not know what this means so I'll spell it out for you: a baby born three months premature to a drug-addled mother is very unlikely to survive. In the U.S., that baby will be treated and damn the cost. In most other countries, that baby will be scored as a miscarriage (i.e. not the hospital's fault) if it dies. It receives care accordingly.

You know the saying "We only improve what we measure?" Many countries do not measure the healthcare of severely premature infants.

This is a good thing to keep in mind the next time you hear about "rationing", because this difference is the rationing that dare not speak its name. After all, if they're not acknowledged to be human quite yet, then if you withhold care to them it isn't rationing.