Here’s the latest study in the long parade of studies about unnecessary procedures in US hospitals:
The relationship between rates of induction and cesarean delivery and rates of the three neonatal outcomes show intervention rates had no consistent effect on newborns.
Even after a second round of analysis that accounted for differences among pregnant women that could potentially impact the results, the finding was the same, hospitals with high intervention rates had newborn outcomes indistinguishable from hospitals with low rates.
It’s not “rationing” to cut down on expensive procedures that don’t make a difference in outcomes. And the free-market fairy won’t fix this solution, because a pregnant woman living in an area with high intervention hospitals can’t travel hundreds of miles to find a low-intervention hospital. So what’s left besides dreaded government intervention?