America: The Most Dangerous Wealthy Nation for Kids [wnyc.org]

I Like the study. Need to look at it much closer however.  Infant mortality is a proxy for the health of a community/country and in rural MI where I live & grew up (Arenac, Gladwin, Clare, Iosco, Oscoda) have infant mortality that’s the same as African American infant mortality in Wayne and Genessee counties and much higher than these county averages - just like the child poverty rate has always been high.     And this is the second year in a row that whites w/o a 4 year degree - that includes those w/a 2 year certificate also have lower life expectancy than African American life expectancy. This death rate is greater than at the peak of the AIDS epidemic and for the second year in a row has resulted in decreased US life expectancy.   We pay by far the most for health care but only some people get it - and they get a lot - while many others get little.  And Medicaid is not a panacea. Many specialists that my patients need (and this is much worse for adults) don’t take Medicaid.   I spend hours trying to find an orthopedist for kids with a broken arm.  Some people in the US are doing well and others are doing very, very poorly.    I love the patients I see but they are not doing well at all.    I hope at some point we will stop using our money for bombs that destroy, terrorize and increase our collective trauma and instead use our resources to create a healthy society where all kids have at least a shot at thriving.