The morbid excesses of Calvinism provided a far more meaty bone to gnaw, from Scott's Old Mortality and James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner in the early 19th century to James Robertson's ingenious updating of these themes in The Fanatic (2000) and The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006).
Neonatal mortality was much higher among the private facility deliveries versus others for the two lower wealth index quartiles (5.2% versus 2.0%, p < 0.001), but not for the two higher wealth index quartiles (2.0% versus 1.7%, p = 0.33).
If one rejects the Medicaid finding on grounds that there are two many unmeasured variables that are confounding the results, then the findings regarding the mortality benefits of private coverage should be viewed with similar suspicion.
Last year, Devereaux and his colleagues at McMaster, the University of Toronto, and the University at Buffalo published pioneering systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies comparing the mortality rates of private for-profit hospitals and those of private not-for-profit hospitals (more commonly, although somewhat inaccurately, referred to as "public hospitals" in Canada).
The private nature of infant mortality has made it a quiet crisis, lacking the public discussion or high-profile campaigns that accompany cancer, autism or postpartum depression.
This suggests that there are other contributors to the higher neonatal mortality in private facilities, such as quality of care.
The mortality of public hospitals (56.0%; 253/452) was not different from the private ones (55.4%; 186/336).
It is clear that healthier, and most likely wealthier, women selectively opt for obstetric care in the private sector and the differences in morbidity and mortality between public and private hospitals are most certainly due to case-mix differences.
"The private companies may engage in promoting education, constructing toilets in schools, reducing child mortality, and any other area contributing towards social welfare," said corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot.
Teachers and doctors working in the private sector often complain that some customers act as if money should overcome basic manners or mortality statistics.
