BtS said
What a failure for the US healthcare system.
You got that right BtS.
List of Countries by Life Expectancy
The USA is #35 in the world compared to Canada at #6.
U.S. Life Expectancy Hits All-Time High
by leavingwt 40 Replies latest social current
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MissingLink
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snowbird
For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years.
My dad and 3 of my 4 brothers missed this milestone, but it's great news anyway!
Sylvia
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leavingwt
My dad and 3 of my 4 brothers missed this milestone, but it's great news anyway!
Yes, I thought that was great news, too.
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BurnTheShips
If you factor out deaths from accidents and murder, US life expectancy is close to the top. Our health care system is the best in the world.
This is true. To assume otherwise is to commit the error that healthcare alone is responsible for life expectancy. We see this logic error frequently on this board. There are other factors at play, such as lifestyle, and as you mention, accidents and murder.
These numbers will generally be used to bash America's health care industry, and to imply that we need to adopt socialized medicine. In fact, though, one would need a lot more information to tell how much, if anything, the life expectancy numbers have to do with quality of health care.
The deaths that impact life expectancy data the most are those of young people. But what are the leading causes of such deaths? In the U.S., as of 1996, motor vehicle accidents, murder and suicide accounted for well over half of all deaths of persons aged 15 to 24. Rates of death from these causes vary widely from country to country, for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of health care. The murder rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most of Western Europe and many other countries. I haven't seen current data, but in 1980, American males between the ages of 15 and 24 died in car accidents at almost exactly the same rate as in France and Germany, but at double the rate in the U.K., and triple the rate in Japan. AIDS is another common cause of death in young people which varies widely from country to country, and which no amount of health care can cure.
The infant mortality statistics are likewise misleading. The leading cause of infant mortality in the U.S., according to the C.D.C., is "congenital malfor?mations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities." I know of no evidence that American doctors are less well able to treat those conditions than physicians in other countries. Given the widespread availability of abortion in most developed countries, however, a considerable number of babies who are known or suspected to suffer from such abnormalities are now aborted. If they are aborted, they do not contribute to a country's infant mortality statistics; if they are born alive and subsequently die, they do.
Likewise, the second leading cause of infant mortality in the U.S. is "disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight." As we all know from reading the newspapers, doctors and hospitals are now able to deliver, and try to save, babies with an astonishingly low birth weight. But not all of those babies survive. In most of the world, extremely premature babies are not recorded as live births, and therefore do not contribute to the infant mortality rate.
It would no doubt be possible to devise studies that would try to measure the impact of the quality of health care on life expectancy. Most likely, such studies have been attempted. But to simply take reported life expectancy statistics and assume that they are an index of the quality of a country's health care system is absurd.
BTS
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JeffT
Does anybody have access to stats on the cause of higher infant mortality in the US? I wonder about crack babies, fetal alcohol syndrome, abuse and just plain neglect.
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snowbird
I wonder about crack babies, fetal alcohol syndrome, abuse and just plain neglect.
All of those things contribute to high infant mortality.
Access to health care is something to consider, also. Down here in the rural areas, getting back and forth to a doctor's office or clinic is sometimes impossible for mothers-to-be. Also, factor in the number of teens who often deliver low-birth weight babies.
Things are improving, though.
Sylvia
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JWoods
It might be useful to remember that as a matter of history, many of the world's longest living people were from the steppes of Russia and had absolutely no access to what we refer to as modern medical care. It has been said that average lifespan has been extended most by prevention and cure of childhood disease and greatly increased chance of survival (both mother and chile) during childbirth.
Simple genetics and day-to-day lifestyle and diet also have a great influence.
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brojo
Hi All. Burn the Ships just about said it all. He/she substantiates my point. I would add: What about the believability of the reports? Do you honestly believe that Cuba's reporting on infant mortality is to be believed? Would a woman prefer to give birth to a child in Cuba or the US? Do you really believe that Costa Rica has a better health care system than the US? I maintain that overall the US health care system is probably the best in the world, certainly among the top five. This is not to say that it does not need improvement. We can do much better. But the greatest improvement in our health statistics would come from a change in people's life styles.
As for access to health care, we need to make it much more accessible. People who have health insurance should not be dropped because they lose or change jobs, or develop health problems. Low income families and individuals should be subsidised or have access to government run clinics. (Many states already have these in place). As with auto insurance, there should be high risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions. But the fact is, there are people who can afford to pay for health insurance, but choose not to purchase it. They may have never had any serious medical issue. The government could actually give people, lets say $500 a month toward health insurance and many of them would not purchase it. They would use the money for something else. But let these people get sick and they would expect medical care.
Joe
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BurnTheShips
Incidentally, the life expectancy in Britain is 75.13 for males.
Our (American) life expectancy in 1997 was 76.5. It is now 77.9.
Life expectancy for British and American women are the same.
So much for the vaunted figures making our system look worse than it is.
BTS
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BizzyBee
#35!? UK is 25th, Switzerland is 9th, and Canada is 6th! American Exceptionalism is DOA as far as healthcare is concerned.