> 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, f

> 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.