On May 28, 6:23�am, (Don Klipstein) wrote:
In article , HeyBub wrote:
Peter wrote:

Exactly! �All this machine counting nonsense. �The bottom line is
that the average lifespan in the U.S. is well below that of countries
that may have far fewer state of the art diagnostic machines. �What's
important is if there are enough machines available to perform the
medically indicated tests, not how many machines are available to
order tests that are not medically indicated.

"Lifespan" is a poor metric for measuring health care.

* A life can be ended before the medical profession has an opportunity to
intervene. Automobile accidents, gang warfare, executions under a lawful
warrant, wars, suicides, and so on.
* The "lifespan" measurement can be jiggled somewhat. In the U.S., a
severely premature infant is assaulted by a massive medical response.
Regrettably, these heroic techniques often fail. In France, the infant is
allowed to expire and is counted as "stillborn."

A better metric for the evaluation of health care is survivability after
diagnosis. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer after diagnosis, if
I remember correctly, in the U.S. is 95%. In the UK, it is 58%. The U.S. is
at the top - or near it - in virtually all chronic (and acute) survivability
measures (heart disease, diabetes, all forms of cancer, and so on).

� Are you saying that Americans bring onto themselves deadly diseases so
badly that they don't live longer despite some impressive higher survival
rate after diagnosis? �Or are American doctors slow to make a diagnosis
before it looks good for the patient to survive the diagnosis? �Or do
American breast cancer victims incur expenditure of megabucks to live 6
rather than 4.5 years after diagnosis? �How about a combination of
these? �(Overweightness favors development of breast cancer, colon
cancer and cancer in general as well as heart disease, and strokes
unless heart disease or cancer hits first.) �These are another American
problems that I have yet to mention in this thread before now, among the
many other specifically-USA problems.

� But how about in comparison to Scotland, since I heard that the Scots
like to eschew eating things that grow in the ground (such as parsnips and
carrots)?

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�- Don Klipstein )- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You are exacty right aout the Scots. They have the lowest life
expectancy of anyone in th UK.