In article , HeyBub wrote:
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:

In the United States, we don't want to die early from heart failure
or cancer

Really? Then why do we live on McDonalds and Cheetohs? A woman I know,
lifelong smoker, got lung cancer three years ago. Vowed to fight it
and win. Did the whole chemo thing, and was in remission for 16
months. Now it's back.

Through the whole thing, she never stopped smoking. Americans want to
die early, that's for damn sure.

Well, not wanting to die doesn't preclude wanting other things...

Fact is, once cancer or heart disease IS diagnosed, Americans live longer
than Canadians.

By how much? Got a cite?

As an aside, we're living longer and we're getting fatter. I wonder if
there's a connection...

At whose expense? Living longer while getting fatter and more sedentary
means big ticket costs for surgeries, tests and for that matter
prescription drugs (which in USA have so much protectionism that an
illegal re-import of USA-made FDA-approved drugs costs less after 2 border
crossings than the same drugs cost legally after no border crossings).

I think that what USA has needs to be rebuilt up and down, left/right
and from its fringes inward and from its core outward, preferably copying
whichever other Western nation is doing it best, with maximum giving-in to
lobbyists of those whose oxen stand to be gored by this being negative.

(Though I would prefer to have a mechanism where those with less healthy
lifestyles as indicated by lifestyle-improvable indicators of health
such as body fat content, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure,
resting pulse rate and alcohol-related liver enzyme level pay more than
those with healthier lifestyles.)

- Don Klipstein )