RSS 2.0 FeedUS Life Expectancy Hits Record. Something Must Be Done!
by Brad WarbianyThis must be why we need reform:
Americans are living about two months longer, with the U.S. life expectancy reaching a record 77.9 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. During the past decade, life expectancy has increased 1½ years.
Death rates are down for major killers, including heart disease, cancer and HIV.
Heart disease? Apparently that obesity epidemic isn’t as bad as we thought? I guess we’ll have to have a major ebola SARS mad cow West Nile bird flu e. coli swine flu panic to get us over the hump.
But, of course, not all is well:
The bad news: American still die sooner than counterparts in 30 other countries. Japan tops the longevity list — 83 years for children born in 2007, according to the World Health Organization.
At least, that is, unless you control for traffic accidents and homicides. If you control for those, we jump to the top of the list. I know Obama’s all about Hope’n'Change, but I doubt his health care plans will fix those two.
actually life expectancy is quite a misunderstood statistic. there are complications regarding quality of life at the late stages, as well as the addition of child mortality in the computation of very early life expectancy statistics.
this of course is no political argument of any stripe, just an observation.
Comment by blahblah — August 20, 2009 @ 3:07 pm