2 ms·

> Life expectancy is a terrible measure for quality of healthcare. ...lifestyle, smoking rates, alcohol and drug abuse, accidents, suicides, genetics. Only if

• refurb 4y ago
  OK, so if we assume that, then is public health worse in Europe because smoking rates are higher than the US? How about higher alcohol consumption? Using life expectancy to judge the quality of a healthcare system or quality of public health efforts is like judging car quality by how nice the body work is. It's a component, but a relatively minor one in overall quality.
  • specialist 4y ago
    Why are you asking me when you could just google? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe... Western Europe does better, Eastern Europe does worse. Pretty much as one would expect. -- Your prior "5 year cancer survival rate" was pretty random. The cherry picking of one favorable stat while ignoring the mountain of counterfactuals. I was confused. Then I spotted this. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/us-vs-europe-life-expectancy-and-cancer-survival/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/us-vs-europe-life-expectancy-... Aha. Just another "libertarian" talking point. Good grief.
    • refurb 4y ago
      You're arguing in circles and not making a lot of sense. First I argued that life expectancy isn't a good measure because of lifestyle, then you say "public health should address those", then I argued Europe does worse than the US on several public health metrics like smoking rates and alcohol consumption, then you go back to life expectancy. I have no idea the point your making because you're failing to actually provide counterfactuals.