Vol. 72/No. 45      November 17, 2008

According to an October report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 28 countries, including Cuba, have lower infant mortality rates than the United States.

There were 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the United States in 2005. Twenty-two countries had rates below 5.0, most of them in Europe but also in Asia and the Pacific, including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Cuba, with an infant mortality rate of 5.3, was ranked 27th. The United States tied for 29th place with Poland and Slovakia.

The U.S. rate was the 12th lowest in the world in 1960. Since then, the soaring cost of health care combined with a sharp decline in the number of people covered by health insurance and cutbacks in government spending has led to deteriorating health conditions that hit the worst-off sections of the working class the hardest. From 2000 to 2005, the CDC report said, there was no progress at all in lowering the U.S. infant mortality rate.

Babies born in the United States who are Black are 2.4 times more likely than white infants to die before the age of one, the CDC report said. The mortality rate for African American infants is 13.6. The rate is about 8.3 for Puerto Ricans, and 8.1 for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

With the spreading capitalist financial crisis, workers can expect government officials at every level will seek to slash medical care further. South Carolina, which has the third highest infant mortality rate in the United States—averaging 13.2 for Blacks and 5.7 for whites—plans to cut health spending next year by 10 percent. Most of the cuts will come from family health programs.

In Cuba, on the other hand, health care is a right, not a commodity sold for profit. Ever since the 1959 revolution on that island replaced the wealthy ruling families with a government of workers and farmers, the government has prioritized providing free health care to all.

Cuba is also a world leader in life expectancy, averaging 77 years, one of the highest rates in the western hemisphere.

As with infant mortality, life expectancy is widely differentiated depending on what class you belong to. According to a report by the World Health Organization, average life expectancy is 81 years for the richest 10 percent of the world’s population and 46 years for those in the poorest 10 percent.
 
 
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