I think you're drawing a slightly wrong conclusion. The point is not that the US system is actually nearly as good as others, the point is that other factors ma

I think you're drawing a slightly wrong conclusion. The point is not that the US system is actually nearly as good as others, the point is that other factors make it look much worse than it is (as far as the metric of life expectancy is concerned). If those other factors were corrected, the comparison could be made fairly. Maybe it would turn out to be good enough, and maybe it would not. > That is to say, a socialized healthcare system with the same spending is unlikely to provide any improvements in life expectancy. Few countries actually have a wholly socialized healthcare _system._ The UK and Canada do, but it's a completely different stories in other developed countries. In France the health insurance system is mostly socialized, while delivery (doctors, pharmacies, hospitals ...) is mostly though not entirely private. In Switzerland and Germany, if I remember correctly, insurers are private but operating similarly to utilities in the US, i.e. within strict government guidelines.