The full cost of grandma’s total knee replacement is $35,000, according to Cost Helper.  Of that, all but $4,257 is paid for by American taxpayers through Medicare.  Nevertheless, a recent study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Boston University School of Public Health found the procedure to be cost-effective, because it extends grandma’s life expectancy by at least a year.

By contrast, the average 2007 cost for prenatal care and an uncomplicated childbirth was $7,600, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a cost that these days is almost entirely born by uninsured or underinsured young adults.  This, in spite of the fact healthy childbirth increases junior’s life expectancy by at least 78 years (by current estimates), a veritable bargain compared to grandma’s knee replacement.

Surely Americans value healthy babies at least as much as we value grandma’s healthy knees.  So why doesn’t our health insurance reflect these values?

Unfortunately, American health care isn’t driven by family values, but by politics and the free market.  Retirees vote in high numbers and have powerful lobbies like AARP.  And while we also have a strong pro-life constituency in America, it often affiliates itself with conservative economic policies that value corporate profits over individual lives.

Free market health insurance has given America one of the highest infant mortality rates and lowest life expectancies among developed nations, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.  A baby born in Canada, England and even Cuba has a better chance for survival than one born in America.

In addition, private health insurance policies create an economic incentive for abortion.  The issue isn’t that public insurance might cover abortions (current bills in Congress don’t), but that under the current system, uninsured and underinsured young adults are forced to pay the bulk of the cost for their healthy babies.  

A recent Associated Press article noted the biggest demographic of uninsured and underinsured in America are young adults in their 20s, a group that is in the prime of their reproductive years.  Many of these young people have recently been dropped from their parents’ family insurance policies and have entry-level jobs that don’t provide health insurance, if they’re fortunate enough to find a job in this weak economy.    

Many young adults opt to take their chances.  Even if they purchase insurance, the typical catastrophic policy marketed to young adults by the private insurance industry has low premiums, but deductibles of $5,000 or higher, an amount exceeding the savings of many young adults.  Thus, the free market forces young adults to put off parenthood, often to a point where their fertility has declined, requiring them to pay for costly infertility treatments.  Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, the free market offers young adults options many of us would consider less than stellar.   

Given the cost of $7,600 for prenatal care and an uncomplicated childbirth, a $5,000 deductible leaves young adults footing over two-thirds of the bill if they choose to carry the pregnancy to term.  Certainly, this is preferable to paying full cost, though either way, many parents will be forced into debt.  

But compare this to the cost for a first-trimester in-clinic abortion--$350 to $900--and the cost for the abortion pill-- $350 to $650--according to Planned Parenthood.  Unlike private health insurance, Planned Parenthood charges on a sliding scale based on income.  No insurance required.

When it comes to family values, money talks; bullshit walks.  If Americans love babies as much as we love grandma, than we need to provide health insurance that pays as much for healthy babies as for grandma’s healthy knees, and makes it as cost-effective for babies to be born as to be aborted.  As the success of Medicare has proven, Americans have the best chance to promote family values through a government-run insurance program.