In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:

CJT wrote:


As indicated in a previous post in this thread, several other
countries have exhibited dramatically better results than the U.S.

Psst! Don't believe everything you see in a Michael Moore film about Cuba.

And folks can juggle the figures. France has a MUCH lower infant mortality
rate than the U.S. But France makes no attempt to minister to extremely
premature infants, prefering to call them "born dead." In the U.S.,
Herculean efforts are expended in those conditions.


There is also a robust correlation between infant mortality and out of
wedlock and teen pregnancies. Guess who leads the league in those two
categories. Also social problems (outside of the purview of medicine)
skew the results. For instance, a gangbanger being shot in a drive-by at
17 impacts much more on the life expectancy stats than keeping an 70
year old around to 80.
Study a couple years ago attributed much of the drop in the US
murder rate to trauma centers saving people and changing murder to
merely assaulted.



Catch this: 6% few deaths attributed to cancer, 6% fewer deaths attributed
to heart disease. Six percent is a HUGE number. The experts don't know why.
Better treatments? Sure. Earlier diagnosis? Probably. Better access to
health care? Of course.

But whatever the cause, the entire system provided substantial, measurable
results.
And this from Lancet Oncology"s landmark study on cancer survival
rates:

€ The American five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is 99
percent, the European average is 78 percent, and the Scottish and Welsh
rate is close to 71 percent. (English data were incomplete.)
€ For the 16 different types of cancer examined in the study,
American men have a five-year survival rate of 66 percent, compared with
only 47 percent for European men. Among European countries, only Sweden
has an overall survival rate for men of more than 60 percent.
€ American women have a 63 percent chance of living at least five
years after a cancer diagnosis, compared with 56 percent for European
women. For women, only five European countries have an overall survival
rate of more than 60 percent.