Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.
For decades, the United States has been slipping in rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve healthcare, nutrition and lifestyles.
A baby born in the United States in 2004 is expected to live an average of 77.9 years. That ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Researchers say several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one, they say, is that 47 million people in the United States lack health insurance, whereas Canada and many European countries have universal healthcare.
But “it’s not as simple as saying, ‘We don’t have national health insurance,’ ” said Samuel B. Harper, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal. “It’s not that easy.”
Among the other factors researchers cite: obesity, racial disparities, infant mortality rates.
Of course, you have to care about more than yourself or your own family – if you think the question is worth considering.
Two other recent discussions here and here.
#24
Yes, healthy workers are good for the economy. Of course, healthy people that have no work because high tax rates reduced investment in new busineses and thus jobs is not so good for the economy. Just ask the French. The Federal government is not a nanny. If you want the government to pay for health care tell your State representative.
From the article (emphasis added):
If obesity is a major factor in life expectancy, then universal health care would do nothing to solve the problem. Instead, we’ll all pay the bills for people that need medical attention because they are fat.
#12, Lauren, so sorry; I failed to notice that you were quoting another misinformed person, malren #3
Still, to restate, removing homicide altogether from the picture does not make our nation appear significantly healthier, to suggest otherwise would only show a lack of knowledge on the subject, or a deliberate act of politically motivated obfuscation..
Malren, Lauren, & chuck,
As Mister Mustard suggested, show us the numbers. If you can’t, then quit with the bull.
The leading cause of lower life expectancy is death. If people quit dying, then America will look better in the eyes of the world.
If you think there are enough “gang bangers” killing each other to make a difference, then you’re crazy. There were less than 17,000 murders in the US in 2005 out of 2.5 million deaths. That is less than 1%. I have no idea how many of those were done by “gang bangers” and how many by wives who caught their husbands cheating. But hey !!!, racist innuendo is easy and cheap.
#25 How do they make this calculation? How can they calculate how long people today will live?
it’s called math, and it doesn’t exist in the bible so a lot of people have not heard of it — in fact, some don’t even believe in it.
for those people, let me explain it’s mystical powers
it’s pretty simple, you take a medical birth and death records to deterimed the length of life (LOL) of X number of people, then add together their LOL and divide by X, and that’s the average life expectancy.
now you see, people have been doing this for years and when you do it for years, these things called trends emerge, and those trends can be a reliable predictor of future events.
this is the same techniques that a lot of people use to allocate resources to better handle future demands
i know it sounds crazy, and math is really scary, but with a little effort you too see the world as it is, not as you hope it will be.
>>Lauren the Ghoti Homicide is .07% compared with 22.8%
>>caused by cancer
To quote Lauren the Fish: BINGO!
And I’ll bet that once you subset out those homicides cause by “gang-bangers” bustin’ 9mils and .40s into each other, the percentage shinks down to less than a decimal-point rounding error.
So come one, Big Talkers FishMan, malren, and Chuckie: ASTOUND US! PLEASE!!! In the alternative, STFU.
#31 Point well taken, however I would like to point out that you already are paying for people who are fat with every check you or your employer write to the insurance company. Also, I bet that the tax increase would be less that what I pay per month now, and my insurance isn’t that great..
#36
Malren, I gave you numbers, you gave me liberal-bashing name calling. I don’t appreciate it.
how long are all you blow-hards going to go on about this before someone points out the simple fact that medicare/medicaid as it currently operates actually is what is distorting the free market and provides a disincentive to compete on price?
i’m shocked frankly, that the conservatives on this list haven’t mentioned this point — shows their lack of comprehension.
if you want to fix health-care costs, extend medicare/medicaid to all citizens who want it, but put it in direct competition with private industry — just like school vouchers
it could be so very simple, really
#36, malren,
No numbers I could provide would ever make a difference
Try us. C’mon, post your numbers and let us decide if there is any validity to them.
What? You don’t have any numbers? You never did, you just wanted to bolster a hollow, meaningless, racist rant? It was all a hoax so those that prefer a little honesty in the discussion would be swayed?
Sorry guys, but you really should try a little harder next time you want to foist some bull shit on those that know it when they see it.
Sorry, late to the party.
I missed something. Why are we talking about slicing and dicing our population up to determine whether there are segments getting better care that might actually approach first world medical care?
It seems to me that since we pay 15% of our GDP, compared to the next highest paying developed democratic nation at 9% of their GDP, we should get better coverage all around. Instead, our averages just plain suck.
We can’t beat Jordan or the Cayman Islands, let alone France, Great Britain, Canada, etc., etc.
I would think that if we pay more, we should get more. But, instead, we get less. Whether Thomas and I can agree on whether it should be national or state is almost irrelevant. This needs to be taken out of the private sector., Certain basic life-sustaining services really are best provided by government. Even government incompetence happens to work out better than competent corporate greed for these things.
>>No numbers I could provide would ever make a difference.
Haw haw! HAW HAW HAW! Talk about pussying out and scampering away with your tail between your legs.
Come on malren, be a MAN for once in your life.
Just let go, and admit it. That bullshit you were spewing about gang-bangers’ violence and the “ASTOUNDING” jump in world health stats by the U.S. was just that: Bull. Shit.
In the alternative, we’re all very receptive to hard data. If you’ve got numbers, any numbers, even WEAK numbers, even numbers from some racist KKK/ Aryan Brotherhood/ John Birch Society web site, bring them on! Let’s evaluate.
Otherwise, STFU.
Ouch!! Mustard, I think malren may be bleeding from that one. Or, he could be lying by his computer dead. You may have just made our statistics worse by one early death.
#23, “Doctors should be government employees.”
One shiny red star awarded to Qsabe!
MisterMustard there are no real men among conservatives — they are cowards who live in fear of crime, in fear of drugs, in fear of pr0n, in fear of video games, in fear of terrorism, in fear that somebody somewhere is getting a free ride on their dime, in fear of sex, in fear of their own naked bodies, in fear of communism, i could go on, but why bother, i say let them live in their gated communities and let us build locks on the outside to keep them in before they further destroy the republic and turn it into a totalitarian state.
they say out of one side of their mouth that government should not be our nannies, but gladly submit to the government watching our every move, like well, nannies
they say that the govt can’t be trusted to deliver health care, but are convinced the govt can be trusted to ignore the very liberties so many brave men and women have died to protect
they say they stand for freedom, but they beg for censorship
they say they want a weaker federal govt but they continually give it new powers over our lives
they say they stand for fiscal responsibility but they laud their congress and president that drove our treasury further into the red than most people can even imagine
they say they don’t want anyone to cheat the system, but they refuse any attempt to regulate corporations to keep them from cheating the system
it goes on and on, i can’t fathom the mind in which these diametrically opposed stances can coincide
>>there are no real men among conservatives
Aw, have a heart, grog. malren, Frank IBC, and the rest of the local neocon flakes are already weeping behind the doors of their ADT(R) security system-protected houses.
Maybe we should give malren a chance to buy some of that male enhancement stuff, and see if he can make a comeback.
You don’t want to kick a “man” (using the term loosely) when he’s down.
“Sir, I believe it has something to do with the duality of man, Sir”
“You know, that Jungian thing? The duality of Man?”
great quote, nightstar
Grog – Wow, “hasty generalization” should be your middle name.
Mister Mustard – given that I have not posted a comment on this thread yet, was your comment really necessary?
>>I say GREAT. Now we have some bodies to replace all
>>the illegals about to be fired.
Word up, dawg! That US HealthCare asshole with the $135,000,000.00 golden parachute should have his parachute deflated, and be sent to pick lettuce in California for $7.50/hr. With no health benefits.
I’ll bet that would change his tune on a lot of things.
Apparently Mr. Fusion anticipated and preempted you Frank
oops, I mean Mr.Mustard ^^
>>Mister Mustard – given that I have not posted a comment
>>on this thread yet, was your comment really necessary?
No, not technically. However, if you HAD posted a comment, I knew what it would be (“commie pinko fag socialized medicine queers, looking for the gummint to actually provide some services for tax dollars, rather than pissing it away on trophy wars, President Cheney’s retirement fund, tax cuts for the rich, etc., they oughta be shot”, like that). You’re very predictable.
Hey, now that President Rove has resigned, do you think we need an interim election to replace him? Oh, I forgot. We no longer elect presidents in this country. Woops, my bad.
Mr. Mustard –
Wow, you’re full of assumptions, too. Maybe you can find where I have actually discussed my views on healthcare policy here and read my alleged posts back to me?
The United States does not have interim elections for president and vice president of the United States. Nor does it have direct popular election for those offices. Maybe you might want to read your Constitution sometime?
And if you don’t want to see Republicans elected year after year, you might want to promote VIABLE, ELECTABLE alternatives to Republican candidates? It’s been done before – case in point being 1992 and 1996 – quit your whining already.
#52 Grog – Wow, “hasty generalization” should be your middle name.
nothing hasty about it — i have been observing the conservative species since i was a teenager and they are just as predictable as liberals.
fyi — your dismissal of me by calling me a name without addressing a single idea i put forth is classic, predictable, transparent, conservative evasive maneuver — well executed, sir.
malren provides a more complete example of conservative strategy
1.) put forth an outrageous allegation or comment,
2.) when pressed to prove it, simply deride you opponents as zealots
3.) feign fatigue an give up the fight, citing futility
but never once put forth any proof for the original allegation
it’s great ploy, because most liberals like me freak out and act all crazy, and you get credit with some people without ever providing any proof.
but i think people are sick of paying through the nose for crappy health insurance, far more than they would in taxes, and the number of people with employer-paid healthcare keeps dwindling year-in and year-out on curve that is steadily approaching zero so eventually something’s gonna have to give.
grog –
fyi — your dismissal of me by calling me a name without addressing a single idea i put forth
Sorry, I didn’t see any. Where were they hidden?
Grog what would these calculations have revealed just prior to the invention of the polio vaccine? These are really lower bounds based on trend lines. They really can’t say how people will be living in 50 years.
Frank IBC
stop bringing up the constitution “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
He’s the decider and he’ll decide when and if to have elections okie fine?
dose this number include babys borne to undocumented imigrents
#62, It only applies to morans.
#62 – swdragoon,
Just to elaborate on Mr. Fusion’s post since his point may not be as obvious as it appears to me, babies (when spelled correctly) born of undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil, are actually citizens. That is our law.
Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ’em
That’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death
and get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard — Lou Reed
If, like me, you prefer the original lyrics, then you might wish to actually think about the fact that the vast majority of us here today are either immigrants or offspring of immigrants. (Of course, if you’re willing to go back farther, we’re an introduced non-native species. We’re all African.)
So, either way, you might want to keep in mind that for good or bad, this country is what it is because of immigrants.