U.S. Life Expectancy Falls to 49th- U.S. "uniquely inefficient" healthcare system as primary cause"

[Panaconda]

US Life Expectancy Falls to 49th

A new study says life expectancy in the United States has plunged over the last decade. According to Health Affairs, the US now ranks forty-ninth in the world in life expectancy, down from twenty-fourth place in 1999. The study authors cited what they called the United States� "uniquely inefficient" healthcare system as the primary cause.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/29/headlines/us_life_expectancy_falls_to_49th



...

Life Expectancy Rate Growing Slower in U.S.

The study, entitled What Changes in Survival Rates tells us about U.S. Health Care, may answer long-debated questions. "Many advocates of US health reform point to the nation�s relatively low life-expectancy rankings as evidence that the health care system is performing poorly," Muennig and Glied wrote. "Others say that poor US health outcomes are largely due not to health care but to high rates of smoking, obesity, traffic fatalities, and homicides.

"We used cross-national data on the 15-year survival of men and women over three decades to examine the validity of these arguments. We found that the risk profiles of Americans generally improved relative to those for citizens of many other nations but Americans� relative 15-year survival has nevertheless been declining. The findings undercut critics who might argue that the US health care system is not in need of major changes."

Democrats are pushing for reform of the health care system and look to provide more health care to more people. The Republicans, who blame poor showings on lifestyle, say the system is strong and are fighting President Barack Obama's efforts at reform. The study comes out as the two parties are battling in upcoming congressional elections to take place in November.

U.S. Life Expectancy World Ranking Dropping

The researchers report that in 1950 that America was fifth among industrialized countries in life expectancy at birth for women. But, they say, figures released just a month ago rank the U.S. 49th overall for life expectancy of men and women combined.

http://www.suite101.com/content/us-life-expectancy-slows-study-blames-sick-health-care-system-a295102

Average Life Expectancy by Country

Being American does not guarantee longer years. In fact, the United States has dropped from 24th in the world for life expectancy in 1999, to 49th this year (2010). The reason? Critics say health care is the primary cause. Though Americans spend more on health care than any other industrialized country, uninsured citizens are continually on the rise.

Health care isn't the only culprit pinned for these recent findings. The American lifestyle isn't exactly the healthiest: smoking, obesity, traffic accidents, and homicides also have been increasing in the United States.

In which countries do people live the longest? According to the CIA's World Fact Book, a little southeast Asian country called Macau takes the top spot, with citizens living an average of 84.36 years. The top ten countries with the highest average life expectancy for 2010 are as follows:

1. Macau
2. Andorra
3. Japan
4. Singapore
5. Hong Kong
6. Australia
7. Canada
8. France
9. Sweden
10. Switzerland

The United States, at 49, is sandwiched between Wallis and Futuna and Albania, interestingly enough. Zambia and Angola come in last � numbers 223 and 224 respectively, with average life expectancies of 38.63 and 38.2.

...

http://www.suite101.com/content/2010-life-expectancy-longevity-factors-and-the-latest-news-a284558

[woo me with science]

1. "Uniquely inefficient."

At least we're special as we die.

[applegrove]

48. In economics public health care is the rare beast that is both equitable and efficient. There is no

trade off like there is for most public policy.

[Billy Burnett]

56. The New America is "uniquely inefficient". Takes 2-3 jobs/worker to support it.

No wonder that true entrepreneurialism has all but disappeared here. :(

[HereSince1628]

2. In 2010 wasn't Hong Kong officially part of China?

It's hard to keep up these days...

[NoPasaran]

10. Yes, as is Macau

Both are former colonies now governed as "special administrative regions".

[HereSince1628]

3. I am positively sure that I heard somewhere on the cable

that we were allowing sick brown people to illegally cross our southern border.

I might have been sitting in a Milwaukee VA clinic when I heard that. If I was I was probably listening to White Noise of Faux News.

[ProudDad]

35. No one's "allowing" anyone to cross the border...

so it must have been faux-noise or some other set of liars... :hi:

Believe me, a "sick brown person" couldn't survive the journey across the Mexico/Arizona "border"...

[bighart]

4. Gee I'm glad that health insurance bill passed so we could enshrine

our unique system even deeper.

[kath]

8. + a brazillion

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KossackRealityCheck]

51. Pure conspiracy theory

It's amazing what we will do with facts after some period of time. All through 2008, the big story on campaign funding was how amazing Obama's fundraising from small donors was. That's why he opted out of federal financing -- because he would have had to give up the millions raised on line in small donations.

And during the primary campaign all three major candidates -- Obama, Hillary and Edwards -- all of them proposed fairly similar plans that were based on expanding and regulating corporate health insurance. You know why? Because that's the system we already have. We are not London after WW II, bombed out with no health infrastructure, already caring for tens of thousands of wounded British soldiers and civilians in army, public and charity hospitals and therefore ripe for a national health service. All three candidates told the same story -- it would be impossible to wipe out the entire health care system and start from scratch.

That's why the plan is the way it is, not because of some paranoid fantasy scenario that Obama was paid off by insurers.

[ThomCat]

53. Go back and listen to the campaign speeches

where Obama talked about reforming health care. He specifically rejected Mandates. It was McCain who was proposing mandates, like what we now have.

It's nice of you to rewrite history, but during the campaigns none of the dems were proposing anything similar to what we ended up with. What we ended up with is closest to what McCain was originally proposing.

[KossackRealityCheck]

54. It was Hillary who proposed mandates, not McCain

McCain proposed a system of tax credits and vouchers -- which is really no expansion of health care at all.

Yes Obama opposed mandates, but they system can't work without them, so Hillary was more honest about what could be done. Even with universal single payer, there would have been a mandate to enroll and pay -- a payroll tax.

The system implemented is pretty much what Obama, Hillary and Edwards were proposing -- modified by what could get past the Senate.

The main difference between what we got and what Obama, Hillary and Edwards proposed is that there is no public option. On the other hand, those who are still bitter over the public option/single payer often ignore Medicaid expansion, which will include 16 to 20 MILLION new people enrolled in our version of single payer. So, of the 30 million currently uninsured between half and 2/3 will effectively be enrolled in a public option.

So you are misremembering what the debate was about.

[MedicalAdmin]

65. I'm not sure why I'm bothering but...

... England did have a health care infrastructure post WW2. To claim otherwise is simply ridiculous. The people of Britain, used to pulling together to beat the Nazi's decided to continue to pull together. The national health plan was supported by everyone from the crown on down. To say imply the they only did it because they had no choice is just revisionist BS. They had a choice and they choose to care for each other. Says a lot about our priorities that we don't.


"If you don't stand for what you say you believe in, then at some point you have to admit that you don't stand for anything." Sen Paul Welstone (D- murdered)

[KossackRealityCheck]

68. England had a crappy health care infrastructure

or more accurately a two tiered one at the start of the war. Rich people saw well off doctors. Poor people were treated by relatively poor doctors.

There were few public hospitals that people could afford.

The war changed that. People did, as you say, pull together and so did the medical profession. In England itself, the normal system didn't work because people were getting injured in the blitz, but if they were poor or middle class, there was no official way to finance their treatment. During the war, "charity" hospital work exploded.

The explosion of publicly financed health care made national health care seem inevitable.

After the war, the medical society viciously attacked proposals for national health care. The government pulled a clever political move -- they got a sort of poll or plebiscite of doctors, the majority of whom were poor doctors treating poor patients, while the medical society represented rich doctors. When the majority of doctors clearly favored national health care (and a paycheck, rather than accepting chickens and promises as fees), the medical society realized its own members didn't support their official position, and that the officers had been outmaneuvered and caved.

[SammyWinstonJack]

61. Pure genius, wasn't it?

:puke:

[MisterP]

5. forcing people to buy insurance is the same as making sure everyone has health care, right?

right?...

[kenny blankenship]

6. I'm sure they meant to say "Uniquely American". Must be a typo or spell check gone wrong.

[OHdem10]

7. Our system is very expensive for what you get.

And the GOP Line. We have the best HC in the world.

[Starry Messenger]

9. k & r

[nashville_brook]

11. 'uniquely American,' i'd say.

[rug]

12. I hope I make it to 2014 when we're 48th.

[Blasphemer]

13. A total and complete embarrasment. nt

[kickysnana]

14. No feedback to incompetent doctors...

With hospitalists and nursing homes they don't even know when their primary care patients die.

The feedback is on number of people who's tests are normal so you dump people who do not comply or fail to respond to cookie cutter treatment or just refuse to order the tests.

We have a lady who had multiple health problems and the last medicine they changed her tomakes her too dizzy to walk. She told my Aunt she was going in to try to get the medicine changed. My Aunt, smart cookie, said I bet they give you another pill for being dizzy and that is exactly what they did. BTW. It did not work.

[XemaSab]

16. My grandma was prescribed

two hardcore stomach meds, a laxative, an antidepressant, and something for poor bladder control.

Miraculously all her symptoms cleared up when they took her off the morphine. :eyes:

[ProudDad]

36. Pretty standard in a for-profit sick care system...

The For-Profit Sick Care is what's uniquely USAmerican...

Even most of the rest of the Americas do better...

[MedicalAdmin]

69. The allopathic model is too limited.

(yes - I know by using the clearly descriptive term allopathic to describe a paradigmic model of healing as taught in many medical schools in the US will trigger lots of jerked knees from the woo patrol, but I chose the word because it most closely describes what I wanted described - so if you have issues with the word or wish to post ad hominum replies - please, feel free)

Having said all of that I would more stongly suggest a functional approach to medicine as a model for the coming century. Of course this would need to be under a single payer system which is, after all, pretty much the only rational one.

Cheers everyone. Welcome to the future of american healthcare - service modelled on the mafia system.

[HippieCowgirl]

15. 49th out of how many?

We never seem to get that answer in these articles.

49th out of 50 would be a serious problem

49th out of 500? Still a problem, but not alarming

So what's the comparison?

[Nay]

18. 49th out of 224. It's in the article.

[intaglio]

19. 49 out of 224

It does say in the OP, so by your classification system a "bad" but not a "serious" problem

Look at it this way, individually the US spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world; this is the total of private insurance and taxes. Ask yourself how much you spend on health insurance, prescription costs, co-pays and all the other little bits and pieces and add in your employers contribution to insurance (if any) add in 30% of all taxes that you pay (Local, State and Federal - remember to include Sales taxes) if the total is more than $2,300 you are paying more than someone in France for a health system considerably worse. More than $1,600 and you are spending more than myself and the UK National health Service is usually ranked 5 - 10 places above the US.

[Panaconda]

20. Read the whole piece

More importantly though is the direction in which things are heading. Let me reiterate:

In fact, the United States has dropped from 24th in the world for life expectancy in 1999, to 49th this year (2010).

Now what's very revealing if you get deeper into the details is how this starts to work out within race and gender and naturally this all gets into issues of poverty.

If we had single-payer the results of this study would be altered dramatically in less than a decade.

[elleng]

29. Would be nice if 'the whole piece' told us what are numbers are.

(Sorry if I missed it.)

My Dad's 97th is coming up in 2 weeks!!!

[Bette Noir]

32. Tell him "Happy Birthday" for us.

And thank him for giving you good genes.

[elleng]

39. THX! Will do!

:)

[Hannah Bell]

44. 49th out of 220-some. & it is a problem when you're supposedly the richest most

developed country in the world but your life expectancy stats are on a par with albania.

[MedicalAdmin]

67. Here's what you need to know.

We are behind EVERY industrialized nation in the world and also behind many nations that we consider either 2ndd world (developing but not there yet) or 3rd world.

For this nation, with it's resources, to be this far down the list is a travesty of the first order. The fact that we pay more per person than every other nation on the planet for what we get is out and out crime.

I hope that was clear enough.

[NorthCarolina]

17. Maybe what we need is

more and/or higher priced INSURANCE.... :sarcasm:

[billlll]

21. A�cap of average US income..onto dr's.. would get greedheads out

Avg is 39K/individual. 50K for family.
ONLY way to get greedheads out is to limit dr income IMHO.

1992, Swedish dr income was 30 000 dollars IIRC.

Greedhead presence causes the med errors, unnec surgeries, arrogant conflicts, 4 hour wait ER, 7 minute office visits, zero housecalls etc.

Not just cost is at issue here... evil attitude is the issue.

The field is 99% greedheads. Sad.
------------------------
dont let dr's off the hook

1. Isn't avg GPractice MD income now
200 000 ? They don't eat more than I do. Foreign drs, as Sweden above, get LOTS less. As ours should.
2. Private practice best reveals where greedhead dr. attitudes harm patients. Tho other settings get harm to patients as well.
Attitude is a major problem.
Must get all greedhead drs OUT.
Only an income cap will do that.

Greed -->unique inefficiencies->#49

Remove Greedheads, caring attitudes then change a thousand customs in the health field ---> # 1

[w4rma]

23. And how would Doctors pay back their student loans on those pitiful wages? Dumb.

Note also, Sweden has free tuition schooling.

[ProudDad]

37. You just answered your own question

USAmerica should have free tuition as well...

The tuition costs are designed to enslave the next generation to the deadly status-quo...!!!

That's what's DUMB!

[w4rma]

72. Then we had better take care of the tuition before even talking about REDUCING wages for anyone.

I think it's dumb to be talking about reducing wages on anyone that isn't making most of their money off the Stock Market. Especially highly skilled professions. Subsidize the profession. Don't devastate it.

[ProudDad]

73. I have an easier solution

Forgive the debts of those who go into Primary Care or Clinic work...

stroke of the pen stuff in a sane society -- too bad we ain't livin' in one...

[mudplanet]

26. I'm all for getting doctors out of the "business" and into healing, but I'm a little

skeptical of your figures. In the UK doctors (GPs) who work in the National Health system earn over $200K, which I think is probably in line for someone who spends about 10 years in training.

[ProudDad]

38. 200K only if they keep their patients VERY HEALTHY...

There's a bonus system that allows good doctors who are able to improve their patient's health to double their income from the customary $100k for primary care docs.

As for the training, like most civilized countries, tuition should be free or near free as high as anyone can go!

Treating education as a commodity makes as much sense as treating Sick Care as a commodity (and ignoring Health Care completely)...

[mudplanet]

46. Agreed. At least in socially beneficial occupations. MBAs can pay their own way

[MedicalAdmin]

70. A couple of points to refute some of your factual errors.

First the average GP in the US makes no where near $200,000. The average GP makes less than 100,000. While they make more than that they also have to pay for an assistant, billing people, front end staff, malpractice PLUS the big expense these days, students loans. And that is based on an average of a 70 hour week.

I must say that I know a lot of doctors and none of them are what I would call greed heads. Sure there are some and among the surgeons I know, I would call some of them greed heads, but on the whole I will take any doctor I know (most of whom got into medicine to help others) over any insurance drone or crook anyday.

In my dealings with insurance companies both in our clinic and as a private citizen, they lie, steal, cheat, and expect to get away with it.

[ProudDad]

74. That's why most GP type docs wanted single-payer...

But that was "off the table" from before the beginning...

Most docs and nurses got into the profession to help people. It's the insurance and hospital corporations that are dictating the way medicine is "practiced" in this country.

No civilized country would allow that to happen -- none do.

[burnsei sensei]

22. The language of the article is so evasive.

Life expectancy is not getting "slower".
It's getting less.
That means, for those who accept the truth, that Americans are living fewer years. Dying more quickly.
How about that?
Our health care system's two imperatives at work:
1. Don't get sick.
2. If you do get sick, DIE QUICKLY.
Simple, truthful.

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Panaconda.

[OmahaBlueDog]

25. What do you mean inefficient? Those without insurance can hold pancake breakfasts, or..

...spaghetti feeds. Only in America can the power of free enterprise be so effectively harnessed to pay for necessary care. Yard sales and e-bay are also great ideas! Of course, if that won't quite cover it, there's always home equity loans or VISA. Maybe swap-of-services -- mowing your Doctors lawn, moving snow from his parking lot, selling your spouse into sexual servitude....the possibilities are endless.

[kenny blankenship]

31. Indeed, if you can't afford your operation on your bad kidney, you can always eBay the good one!

Or maybe a lung or part of your liver. You have the power and the choice to chart your own destiny in the Free Market.

[MedicalAdmin]

71. At our clinic we offer trades.

It doesn't happen a lot but it is something that we allow patients to do. They get care from us and then at some point in the future we have them help out. It's a pure swap of service for service and no one pockets anything. We have had rooms painted, electrical rewiring done, bookkeeping done, newsletters worked on, etc. ...


It's a win win. We modeled it on the Itasca Bucks program that our med director heard about. The idea is not to take advantage but to find a fair and equitable exchange.

The servitude thing is coming to America, but it ain't gonna be doctors that introduce it, it'll be the billionaire boys club.

[Ted_White]

27. The right wing and corporate interests will fight any kind of real reform to

remedy this embarrassment.

[mudplanet]

28. "My wife died in child birth at 32 because we couldn't afford

prenatal care. The fetus died and the doctor said we could have it aborted, but our preacher said it would be murder and besides, me and my buddies burned down the abortion clinic last year. My six year old son is deaf because his momma got the measles when she was pregnant and we didn't have a clinic in our county that provided vaccinations, so we put him in a home for retards. The preacher said it was ok 'cause God must have hated him or he wouldn't have made him a retard. And now the doctors say my daughter who is 11 is going to die sometime in the next three years because of a congenital heart condition - which could be fixed but we don't have medical insurance 'cause they don't offer it at the mill where I work.

But I'm proud to Amurican, where at least I know I'm free. And not in some socialist hellhole like Sweden or France."

[RC]

45. I'm a gonna steel dat an use it on aother postin site.

That is good. Thanks.
:hi:

[ProgressiveEconomist]

30. Remember, there are TWO AMERICAS. Where do US WHITES stand compared to WHITES in other countries?

compared to WHITES in other countries?

There usually are huge racial disparities in US data, and life expectancy data are no exception. The Congressional Research Service found a 5.3-year racial disparity in 2003 data, with a 4.4-year racial disparity among women, and a 6.6-year racial disparity among men.

Knowing these racial disparities IMO goes far in explaining why most whites apparently think the status quo is fine and voted overwhelmingly for McCain-Palin two years ago (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070403988_pf.html ), and have voted overwhelmingly for Republicans in EVERY Presidential election since 1964.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From http://aging.senate.gov/crs/aging1.pdf :

Life Expectancy at Age 0 in 2003, by Race (final data, in years)
------------------------------------------------
78.0 White Population
72.7 Black Population
05.3 Difference (White-Black)
------------------------------------------------

From: "Table A2. Life Expectancy at Various Ages in 2003, by Sex and Race (final data, in years) White Population Black Population Difference (White-Black)

Source: CRS compilation from National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, �Deaths: Final Data for 2003,� vol. 54, no. 13, Apr. 19, 2006.

Notes: Life expectancy at age 0 (at birth) measures the number of years that a child born in 2003 could expect to live, on average, if the mortality trends observed in 2003 were to continue for the rest of the newborn�s life. Life expectancy at age 65 measures the number of additional years of life a person at age 65 will live, on average, given that he had already attained age 65 in 2003.

Data are based on a continuous file of records from the States. Calculations of life expectancy employ populations estimated as of July 1. Race categories are consistent with the 1977 Office of Management and Budget guidelines. Seven states California, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New York, and Wisconsin reported multiple-race data in 2003. The multiple-race data for these States were bridged by NCHS to the single categories of the 1977 OMB standards for comparability with other States. Data are subject to sampling or random variation."

[marmar]

33. There's a study comparing middle class white Britons to middle class white Americans.....

...... and the Britons still fared far better w/health stats.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

42. White US life expectancy is somewhere between the European Union's and Taiwan's,

White US life expectancy is somewhere between the European Union's and Taiwan's,
according to http://cia-world-fact-book.findthebest.com .

Black US life expectancy, on the other hand, is somewhere between Colombia's and Egypt's, below Mexico's and China's.

--------------------------------------------------
Selected Life Expectancy (years)

82.12 Japan
81.63 Australia
81.23 Canada

80.98 France
80.20 Italy
80.05 Spain

79.40 Netherlands
79.26 Germany
79.22 Belgium

79.01 United Kingdom
78.72 Korea, South
78.67 European Union

78.11 United States
77.96 Taiwan
76.56 Argentina

76.30 Saudi Arabia
76.06 Mexico
75.63 Poland

73.47 China
73.10 Thailand
72.81 Colombia

72.12 Egypt
71.99 Brazil
71.96 Turkey

71.14 Iran
70.76 Indonesia
69.89 India

66.03 Russia
64.49 Pakistan
48.98 South Africa

[ProudDad]

34. Too bad we didn't get "major changes"...

"The findings undercut critics who might argue that the US health care system is not in need of major changes."

1. Macau
2. Andorra
3. Japan
4. Singapore
5. Hong Kong
6. Australia
7. Canada
8. France
9. Sweden
10. Switzerland

Don't know about Macau and Andorra but the next 8 places all consider Health Care a human right for all persons living there and either have single-payer financing (all but France) or TIGHT government controls on costs!

Exactly the aspects of health care that were "removed from the table" thanks to private deals between Obama and the health insurance mafia and Big PhRMA... :grr:

[RainDog]

40. this is the SHAME of this nation

that profits for insurance cos matter more than health care.

[bemildred]

41. Our "health care" system is "uniquely efficient" at extracting money from your pocket.

Other than that, it's not so good.

[Hannah Bell]

43. but wait, we're supposed to work until 70 because we live so long.

[SammyWinstonJack]

62. Crazy, eh?

:crazy:

[Overseas]

47. The perils of privatized health care for profit. //nt

[maryf]

50. K&R

Medicare for All anybody? 50 million not covered, 100 million undercovered on any given day?? thanks.

[PA Democrat]

52. So the right's claim that we have "the best health care in the world" is a LIE?

Who knew (except all of us)?

[Incognitus Czar]

55. I thought it was because of obesity!

And here I thought the primary blame was because of fat ass Americans not exercising and eating fast food all the time!

[elehhhhna]

57. deathpaneldeathpaneldeathpanel

[blindpig]

58. Be it the 'unhealthy lifestyle' or....

the obscene profit driven 'health are system' it's the capitalism.

[Recursion]

59. Well, there's the whole "cars and guns" thing too

Our obsession with cars and the relative ease with which people can get guns both knock our life expectancy down pretty hard.

[DirkGently]

60. Baffling. It's almost like giving the least care at the highest price to the fewest people

in order to make the largest profit, doesn't result in the most care for the most people at the lowest cost.

Crazy talk.

[mainer]

63. I question whether health care is really the cause

Other than for childhood vaccinations and childbirth-related care, how many medical interventions during one's life really alter longevity? Clean water and clean food sources had far more impact on longevity than anything any doctor ever did for you. Ironically, Hispanic Americans live longer than white Americans -- yet I'll wager Hispanic Americans have fewer contacts with the medical profession.

I've worked in the south pacific, where people live as long (or even longer) than in the US. And those kids hardly ever saw a doctor except for their vaccinations. But they also didn't drink soft drinks, they weren't obese, and they ate a diet of fish and coconuts.

Americans are losing ground because we're obese, we don't exercise, we get diabetes, and we smoke.

[NickB79]

64. The authors already took obesity and smoking into consideration

"Glied and Meunnig do not believe obesity accounts for the differences. While more Americans are obese, overall the populations in all the nations have been getting fatter, they said.

"For obesity to explain the decline in U.S. life expectancy or the increase in health spending relative to the 12 comparison countries, Americans would have to be becoming obese at a faster rate than people in the comparison nations over time," they wrote. But this has not been happening.

Americans are less likely to smoke, and while Americans are more likely to die in car crashes or be murdered, again these rates do not explain the lower life expectancy, the Columbia team said.

"The findings undercut critics who might argue that the U.S. health care system is not in need of major changes," they wrote."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39548799

[fascisthunter]

66. The Reason? Our Healthcare System is being Suffocated by our For Profit Health Insurance System