Fifth installment of why I love this country and why I love paying taxes: The Child Health Insurance Program and state programs (such as Denali Kidcare) that work with CHIP to insure children and pregnant women.

This morning on NPR I woke up to a pretty amazing number. 300,000 babies. 300,000 babies each year are born with HIV in the developing world. 300,000 babies. It’s pretty staggering and also pretty amazing that with more than 8,000 HIV positive women giving birth in this country each year, only around 150 babies are born infected, thanks to the availability of pre-natal care.

There are many, many reasons why prenatal care should be available to every woman (and baby), but if we just narrow our vision to look at those 7,850 babies that are born free from HIV each year — my taxes pay for that and I consider it money well spent.

Susannah Webster