Comments Posted By LenS
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THE MASSACHUSETTS HEALTH INSURANCE BOONDOGGLE
Longevity is not the same as health care.
As noted above, the US murder rate is higher. A majority of those murders are young black males killing other black males. It has nothing to do with health care quality, but it has a major impact on longevity (a small percentage of people dying at 18 has a big negative effect on longevity than a much greater percentage of people dying a few months earlier). Of course, considering how much crime, both violent and non-violent, has increased in Europe, I'd guess that European murder rates will catch up also.
Also, the US treats infant mortality differently. Here in the US we try to save every preemie -- and we do succeed with an amazing percentage. But the failures are counted as live births even when they die within a short time period. That hurts our longevity numbers. However, in much of the world, the most extreme preemies have no chance and aren't counted as live births.
Finally, with national health care systems we are dealing govt. bureaucrats. The first rule of bureaucracy is to CYA. So concealment of bad information is pro forma. And unlike the US, it's relatively easy for a national system to conceal information. There's no lawyers to sue or citizens running to the media or their representatives or bloggers to report.
Comment Posted By LenS On 12.01.2009 @ 23:10
