Health Care and Longevity

One of the arguments for changing the U.S. health care system is the claim that Americans have a shorter life expectancy. One e-mail I received said: “America ranks very low in longevity compared to other Western countries, infant death ranks high as well. We are not the best, but we could be.”

What about this claim about American longevity? Life expectancy is merely an estimation of how many years the average person lives.” If we use this definition, then American longevity is lower than many other countries. But there may be other factors involved besides health care. For example, one writer points that you can “live in a nation with the best health care system in the world, but if it’s in the throes of civil war,” your life expectancy will be short.

But we aren’t in the midst of a civil war. True, but go to a part of the city where gang warfare rages, and you might feel like you are in the midst of one. Violent crimes will lower life expectancy.

As one radio guest pointed out, crude statistics are just that: crude. Yes, the U.S. has a high infant mortality rate compared to other industrial countries. Part of the gap is due to how live births are defined. In some countries, an infant who dies soon after birth is not considered a live birth. Social scientist Nicholas Eberstadt “finds that U.S. infants, stratified by birth weight, have a high[er] likelihood of survival.”

One commentary in Forbes magazine on American health care finds other factors that affect longevity. Life expectancy differences between the U.S. and other countries can be due “to such lifestyle choices as diet, exercise and smoking.” Longevity in states like Minnesota or Utah essentially match those in countries like Norway or Britain. When you compare all of Europe (both rich and poor) with the U.S., suddenly these major differences in life expectancy vanish.

We need to get the right statistics on the table as we debate health care. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.