If you have read any papers or seen any news reports over the last ten years, it is often repeated that the US is lagging behind most of the world in our health care industry, especially when related to life expectancy and infant mortality rate. Most of us will lap up those statistics and decry "foul" and "we need better health care", but a closer examination needs to be performed to see if we are looking at apples to apples when these statistics are thrown about.
Let's look first at from where these reports spring - the 2000 WHO report based on data obtained/compiled in 1997. Fundamentally changing our whole health delivery system based on 14 year old data is really shortsighted in my opinion. Much has changed in the last 14 years....
The WHO's calculation of life expectancy factors in things that have little to do with one's life expectancy related to the delivery of health care. The US murder rate and the US car accident death rate are much higher than the other countries in the WHO study and these rates are included in calculating life expectancy. I agree it is very tragic that our country leads in these two areas, and they definitely relate to life expectancy, but the health care delivery system has very little to do with making those numbers less. Two other factors in the study overlooked is the obesity rate of US citizens and smoking. Over the past 14 years, the number of US adults smoking has decreased and the obesity rate of US citizens is a personal lifestyle / patient compliance result that again does not correlate well with determining the efficiency of a health care delivery system. If the deaths related to the car accidents and murder rates were removed from the calculation of life expectancy, the US would be one of the top countries as far as life expectancy. Also, if you look at life expectancy of 65 year olds, the US exceeds the life expectancy of the other countries. A more detailed explanation of these differences can be obtained from the following link:
http://www.biggovhealth.org/resource/myths-facts/life-expectancy/
The other statistic in which the US reportedly lags is the infant mortality rate. This is due to two factors. First, when you look at the gestational ages that the US physicians deliver compared to other countries in the list, you will see that we by far deliver many more pre-term babies than other countries, taking on a "risk" that other countries cannot either manage or do not care to manage. The other factor our infant mortality rates are greater than the other countries is due to how the countries measure/define their infant mortality rates compared to the US. The full explanation of these differences can be obtained from the following link:
http://www.biggovhealth.org/resource/myths-facts/infant-mortality-and-premature-birth/
When you explore further, many of the items where the US is rated "poorly" compared to other countries, factors such as our country's wealth, standard of living and lower penetration of government control in our health care system accounts for many of the disparities and give us lower scores based on the rating system. Is our system perfect? No. Does it need change? Yes. This is not a commentary on the lack of needed change, it is a commentary on what we have accepted for "fact" without exploring the truth behind the data.
Back in the 70's, a bumper sticker was often seen in the South and Midwest:
"If you are complaining about the American Farmer, don't do it when your mouth is full"
I'd like to somthing similar for the health care system:
"If you are complaining about the American Health Care system, don't do it without the facts"