Life and death in the Americas

Prensa Latina reports that Cuba has once again recorded the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas, 4.6/1000 live births. "In the American continent, the only country with an infant mortality rate of five was Canada, followed by the United States (seven [6.4 per the CDC), Chile (eight) and Costa Rica and Uruguay (nine), according to UNICEF."

There were 4 million births in the U.S. last year. If the U.S. had the same infant mortality rate as Cuba (which means it would need the same universal, proactive health care as Cuba), 7200 fewer American babies would have died last year. Saving that many lives could have come at a far lower cost than the cost of the "war on terror," which of course has cost lives (hundreds of thousands of them, including many thousand Americans), not saved them.