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The topic discussed in the article is important, but the data is not convincing. Based on the lead chart itself, which shows relative improvement, the USA as a

The topic discussed in the article is important, but the data is not convincing. Based on the lead chart itself, which shows relative improvement, the USA as a whole is in the company of Japan, Sweden, Norway - all countries doing well, with universal healthcare, high life expectancy, etc. It makes you think that the situation is not as dire as the article makes it to appear. > If you have good insurance and you live on the East Coast and the West Coast, > you probably get the best health care in the world... > In many parts of the country, top health care simply isn't available. I personally think that's one of the key drivers. There are certain parts of the country that are not doing well. Consider the case of Youngstown, OH where mortality rate in 2015 was 54.5 compared to 8.2 in the U.S. as a whole. https://github.com/axibase/atsd-use-cases/blob/master/USMortality/README.md#detailed-sql-example-3---calculating-mortality-rates https://github.com/axibase/atsd-use-cases/blob/master/USMort...

hackuser 10y ago
> Based on the lead chart itself ... the situation is not as dire as the article makes it to appear. The lead chart shows the U.S. ranked 32nd of 35 nations, for both women and men. (My quick count might be off by a little.) In addition, this sounds bad to me: [The U.S.] has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any of the countries in the study, and the highest obesity rate. It is the only one without universal health insurance coverage and has the “largest share of unmet health-care needs due to financial costs,” the researchers wrote. Tellingly, the United States was the first high-income country to see a halt to the pattern of increasing height in adulthood, a reliable indicator of improving public health, according to Majid Ezzati, a professor of public health at Imperial College London, who led the research team. Some Americans get a “bad start to life in nutrition and education” and suffer “high rates of homicide,” Ezzati said. “And then lack of universal insurance. Some people probably get diagnosed too little and too late.

hackuser 10y ago

> Based on the lead chart itself ... the situation is not as dire as the article makes it to appear. The lead chart shows the U.S. ranked 32nd of 35 nations, for both women and men. (My quick count might be off by a little.) In addition, this sounds bad to me: [The U.S.] has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any of the countries in the study, and the highest obesity rate. It is the only one without universal health insurance coverage and has the “largest share of unmet health-care needs due to financial costs,” the researchers wrote. Tellingly, the United States was the first high-income country to see a halt to the pattern of increasing height in adulthood, a reliable indicator of improving public health, according to Majid Ezzati, a professor of public health at Imperial College London, who led the research team. Some Americans get a “bad start to life in nutrition and education” and suffer “high rates of homicide,” Ezzati said. “And then lack of universal insurance. Some people probably get diagnosed too little and too late.