Statistics

The United States ranks 45th in life expectancy among the nations of the world; in other words, 44 nations are doing better than we are, including, in additional to the usual suspects (that is, almost every nation in the industrialized world), such places as Puerto Rico, Bosnia and Jordan. For these numbers, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy and sources there cited.

We rank either 33rd or 35th, depending on who you believe, on infant mortality, again meaning that 32 (34) nations are doing better than we are, including Cuba and Slovenia. This information is collected at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate.

Of course if you exclude people of color and/or poor people, the United States looks much better, but all that proves is that the relatively rich get very good health care here. We all knew that. If American doctors are not the world's best, they certainly rank right up there, and they are at least as capable of delivering cutting-edge high quality care as anyone else, and better than most. (In fact, wealthy people from other nations, including the nations who are beating us on the numbers, sometimes come here for care which they think is better than the care they can get at home.) Rather than being an answer to the statistics quoted here, the wide disparity in quality of care is a nice statement of the problem.

Remember, we are spending upwards of $6,000 a year for every man, woman and child in this country on health care, far more than is spent by any of the numerous countries who are beating us hollow in the statistics. Does it occur to anyone to ask why we are not getting what we are paying for?