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Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

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Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#41

Post by wahern »

hooande wrote: post #15
admiralspoo wrote: post #10

Comparing ethnically homogenous countries to the US is meaningless and downright deliberately misleading at best. There is significant variation in every state by race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

can't this variance be explained more accurately by relative income? the US is more ethically diverse than many western nations, but also has high income inequality. This inequality, unfortunately, is distributed ethically

> US is more ethically diverse... inequality, unfortunately, is distributed ethically

Trenchant, if unintentional, observation :)

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#42

Post by [deleted] »

admiralspoo wrote: post #29
JimTheMan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are other races somehow not American? I never understood this argument. "If it weren't for all those black people and immigrants we'd actually be really good! Those other countries are just too 'homogenous'. " And then somehow this fact apparently dismisses other countries efforts at providing universal/preventative healthcare and initiatives that the US simply does not.

Genetics are about 2/3s of life expectancy. If you wish to compare ethnically inhomogeneous populations versus those that are homogenous, your comparison is not useful for anything. Urbanized (or rural) Asians in the US live longer than Asians elsewhere. The same is true for Blacks.

[deleted]

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#43

Post by julienb_sea »

perardi wrote: post #30

Wow, the difference between the US and Canada is a surprise, in particular the opioid overdoses and road accidents. I am a US->Canada transplant, and the cultural and economic differences here just don’t seem that stark. Yes, there is universal health care, obviously…but there is definitely not an abundance of easily available mental health care here, especially outside the major metro areas. And the health care in t…

There are dramatically more high density, high risk driving environments in the US versus Canada. I could also make some questionable generalizations about Canadian drivers versus US drivers.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#44

Post by nostromo »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #13
TuringNYC wrote: post #5

There really are two Americas - wealthy america and the rest of america. I'll bet if you split America into two sets of counties, the graph would be much different -- one would be a super-outlier and the other a super-laggard. I know this personally, as I've spent 21yrs of my life in one half, and another 20 in the other half. I've also lived overseas for several years, and they also have stratas, but much less prono…

Coastal America and rest of America might be a better way to cut it.

I know a few multi-millionaires in Idaho and Utah that live very nicely.

In SF or LA they'd be middle-class.

It's not just about wealth in dollars, it's about purchasing power.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#45

Post by stevesimmons »

narrator wrote: post #7

We spend double, as a percentage of GDP, what any other rich country spends on health care, so that's not it.

The amount the US spends on healthcare is more than offset by the high proportion of people who have no cover.

The % of US population covered by health insurance is around 84%, compared with most other rich countries, which are all at 100%.

Additional, much of what you count as US health care spending is really health care administration - i.e. billing and finding reasons to deny care to the sick.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#46

Post by perardi »

pembrook wrote: post #27
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coastal America and rest of America might be a better way to cut it.

Not really, there’s countless cities with tons of well off upper middle class people in the middle of the country. Metro-Denver, Metro-Austin/Dallas/Huston, Metro-Atlanta, Metro-Nashville, Metro-Chicago, Metro-Detroit, Metro-Minneapolis, etc. etc. etc. I’d say it’s more city/suburban vs rural. This doesn’t account for the poor & homeless in all of America’s inner cities, but does a better job explaining. Maybe “Fortu…

I think you have to go even finer grained than that.

Chicago, for example. My old stomping grounds. The inequality within that city is stark. Glaring. The South and West sides are a world apart from the North side.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#47

Post by troupe »

Last time I looked closely at infant mortality in the US, it looked like the US was doing horribly. However, after talking with some doctors at a neonatal ICU I found out that in the US, we will often identify an unborn child that is in trouble and get it out of the mother in an attempt to save it. Since these types of cases are considered a birth, they count against the mortality rate whereas in some other countries they would be stillborn and not count against infant mortality statistics.

That isn't to disagree with the causes given in the article, but after talking to those doctors it made me realize how complicated it is to get accurate comparisons between countries.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#48

Post by julienb_sea »

heavyset_go wrote: post #17
narrator wrote: post #7

We spend double, as a percentage of GDP, what any other rich country spends on health care, so that's not it.

Other first world nations spend half of what we do, and they have better outcomes and quality of care[1]. They are able to insure all of their citizens with it while the US doesn't. [1] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/quality...

Well, the US has better outcomes for employed, insured and non-overweight folks; dramatically lower wait times, better cancer survival rates and less competition for care. Expense is also a nonissue on employer insurance.

Unfortunately the US aggregate outcomes are dragged heavily down by an unhealthy population and high barriers to care for the uninsured.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#49

Post by santoshalper »

admiralspoo wrote: post #10

Comparing ethnically homogenous countries to the US is meaningless and downright deliberately misleading at best. There is significant variation in every state by race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

Nothing about the chart you showed supports your argument.

Re: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries?

#50

Post by missedthecue »

JimTheMan wrote: post #11

"It's a poor nation with rich people in it."

Yet the median disposable income per person, after adjustments for government provided healthcare and education is enormously higher than any other nation, according to the OECD.

https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-disposable-income.htm

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