Life Expectancy In the United States, we take pride in being the best. After all, we are the wealthiest individuals on the planet. We possess the strongest military.
We remain the only nation to have successfully landed a person on the moon. So, why do we find ourselves as the 54th (yes, you read that correctly) longest-living individuals globally?
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, a baby born in America in 2004 can anticipate living for 77.9 years. That’s more than 4 years shorter than a Japanese baby, who can look forward to living a full 82 years.
“There’s something amiss when one of the wealthiest nations in the world, which invests the most in healthcare, is unable to compete with other countries,” stated Dr. Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, in an article covered by the Associated Press.
Americans fall behind nations such as France (80.4), Sweden (80.3), and Canada (80.0). We rank below most of Europe and even one Middle Eastern nation (Jordan).
Life expectancy, Some differences are Race-Driven.
What is going on? Some of the differences—a tiny bit—are attributable to racial disparities in life spans. According to the CDC, white Americans live for about 78.3 years.
However, they are still about 4 years shorter than the Japanese or six years shorter than some Europeans. Meanwhile, African Americans can expect to live 73.3 years.
Researchers explain the alarming gap in life spans. To a combination of inadequate health insurance, obesity, and lifestyle factors such as stress. Countries such as England, Canada, and France.
Having national health coverage may explain some of the gaps. People with health coverage are more likely to seek medical attention immediately when they need it. Rather than wait until the problem gets worse and their health deteriorates.
There are about forty-seven million American affected.
This problem of some of the differences plagues about 47 million of us. And the remaining 253 million of us with health insurance. Often encounter a healthcare system that seems more intent on denying us coverage than ensuring our access to healthcare.
Many life-or-death health decisions are no longer made solely by you and your doctor. Instead, these decisions are made by HMOs. If you are denied coverage by someone. Who may not even be a medical doctor?
Instead, in some cubicle at an HMO, you do have a right to appeal. If you survive long enough to win the appeal. Then you may be able to finally get the coverage you have paid premiums to get. Of course, if you win your appeal, you’d better not get sick again.
Most HMOs have many loopholes. This gives them the right not to renew their insurance contract in the next renewal period. That’s not right or fair. But then again, it was probably not fair to deny you coverage in the first place.
Of course, you can appeal the non-renewal to some court. And spend the remainder of your shortened lives fighting HMOs, right? A lot of Americans caught up in this unbelievable maze have started heading for the EXIT sign.
A Medical Vacations.
You may have heard about the new growing trend of “medical vacations”. BBC News (owned by the British Broadcasting Company) ran a report on September 14, 2007, about India’s attempts to become a medical tourism destination.
In the report, a woman from Oregon explained that she had traveled from Oregon to Mumbai, India, for a hip replacement. The woman explained that her health insurance would have required her to pay 20% of the cost.
Even after factoring in the cost of a plane ticket for a 5000-mile trip and the costs for a hotel and food. It was still cheaper to have the operation in Mumbai than in Oregon.
Life expectancy lifestyle factors.
Which leaves lifestyle factors- stress, heavier? We Americans are, to put it impolitely, fat. The latest research reports put the number of people in higher weight, Americans, at 67%. That is two out of three of us.
Americans under 30 may be the first generation to die at an earlier age than their parents. As for stress, that factor is hard to pin down. We work long hours for many more years than any other people in the industrialized world.
We take an average of less than a week of vacation per year. Europeans’ average total vacation time is 6 to 8 weeks. A recent survey by KFC reported that 62% of us believe that the one-hour lunch is “the biggest myth of working life”.
MSNBC reported that the masses take only half an hour for lunch, and plenty of us eat at our desks. Job security has all but vanished for the current generation of workers.
And because older Americans – our parents — are on average sicker than, say, Europeans and Japanese. And Canadians for longer periods of their mature years.
Working Americans often find themselves sandwiched between the need to care for aging parents and kids.
In Conclusion.
So, while it is hard to pin down exactly what kind of stress may be killing us off. Sooner than the rest of the industrialized world, we have plenty of candidate stressors that may be to blame. How do we close the gap?
Much of it is beyond our fixing immediately. However, surely we can work on addressing the problem of obesity. Doctors say that losing even a few pounds, especially around the middle, can add years to a person’s healthy living and increase their life expectancy.
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Related source:
- Our World In Data, Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich…
- Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, What drives differences in life expectancy between the U.S. …
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Life Expectancy Years Shorter in the United …
Related article: Longest Lifespan, The Secrets of Japan’s High Life Expectancy. Continue reading >>
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