US Slips from 11th to 42nd Place

One of the key areas to determine whether a country has good health care programs is the on-going results of the public’s life expectancy. Unfortunately, due mainly to the lack of a comprehensive universal health care program, US longevity has slipped from 11th to 42nd over the past two decades. Citizens in forty one countries now live longer than Americans starting from the longest average at 83.5 years in Andorra, a small European country to 77.9 years in the United States. And there are forty other countries, mostly in Europe, Japan and S.E. Asia that have longevity beyond that of the US.

This new lower US position is presented by both the Census Bureau and from the National Center for Health Statistics. Even though not all of the negative results are totally due to the lack of a health care program, this lack is the number one explanation. This is confirmed by the fact that virtually all of the 41 countries ahead of the US have a health care program for their citizens. And all of these programs have a preventative health care component as well as overall general health care for all, regardless of the person’s financial status. To make matters worse, the latest US statistics also show that Black American males only have a life expectancy of 69.8 years, slightly longer than the average for Iran and Syria and slightly shorter than in Nicaragua and Morocco.

For the wealthiest nation on the globe, one would think that this would be an embarrassing statistic for the current administration.

However, you will notice that the current president has never had a vision for a US health care program, nor have any of the current Republican presidential candidates. Not one of them has given any real attention for supporting a comprehensive health care initiative for the 2008 election. On the other hand, all of the Democratic candidates have a health care proposal, some of which are already well defined and detailed.

Life expectancy is only one of the criteria for all the countries rankings. The other key component is the percentage of babies that die before their first birthday. Forty countries, including Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe had lower infant mortality rates than the US. The US average rate is 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, and is 13.7 deaths per 1,000 black American births (same as Saudi Arabia).

Most health care specialists agree that the key component to these other countries with better rankings are the preventative side of their universal health care systems. Being able to catch diabetes early, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, having regular checkups to catch cancers, lung disease and heart problems is the best way to lower the US ratings back down to single digits. However, with the increasing costs of health care, Americans just don’t spend money on doctor’s visits until they become sick. Prevention is only for those with no cost or low cost medical coverage and 47 million US citizens are currently without any coverage.

It’s time for the wealthiest country in the world to join the other industrialized countries that take care of their citizens.