It's a myth that low black life expectancy is responsible for the lower overall US life expectancy. This myth is conveniently trotted out every time someone points out the abominable performance of the US health care system compared to other developed countries, both in terms of results as well as cost.
Here are the facts:
Black life expectancy is about five years less than white life expectancy, but it only lowers overall US life expectancy by about 0.4 years [1]. US overall life expectancy is 77.7 years. US life expectancy for whites is 78.1 years [2] ((77.7+0.4). Australia's overall life expectancy (which includes the much lower life expectancy of the aboriginals) is 80.4 years [3]. This makes the difference between Australia and US almost the same as the difference between the US and Mexico (Mexican life expectancy is 75.2 years) [4].
Of course, those in the US with good health insurance are more or less OK. But for the 30% poor and uninsured (both black and white) it's a different story: they face third world health care conditions, as objectively measured by their life expectancies. The irony of it all is that they ultimately do get health care, after their conditions reach the critical stage, at which point the "system" treats them at astronomical cost.
The insane health care system in the US is, IMO, the biggest problem we are facing. It's a huge impediment to US competitiveness. We are wasting by my estimate 7% of our GDP, which is almost two times our defence budget. Some of our largest companies, like GM and Ford, are in grave danger of going out of business in the next decade because of this insanity. We are importing cars from Ontario, because Canadian workers have a national health care plan, while GM and Ford in the US are burdened with huge health care payment liabilities. And to add insult to injury, they have to pay almost twice as much as national health care systems pay in Europe, Japan, and Canada.
1. childtrendsdatabank.org
2. cia.gov
3. cia.gov
4. cia.gov |
