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Despite getting high marks for treating cancer and heart disease, the United States is failing the ultimate test of its health care system, a new study finds, trailing other developed countries in life expectancy gains. Although life expectancy has edged upward for U.S. men and women in recent decades, several other developed countries have surged ahead in both overall life expectancy and in the expected years of life for people who have reached age 50, according to the 194-page report prepared by a panel of the National Research Council of the National Academies. When comparing health data from the United...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States ranked 29th in the world in 2006 in life expectancy at age 50. That places it more than three years behind the world's leader, Japan, and more than one and a half years behind Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Iceland, Spain, and Switzerland. About 4 million Americans reach the age of 50 each year, so an average loss of one and a half years per person means an aggregate loss of some 6 million years of potential life, valued at anywhere from $600 billion to $1.3 trillion annually. In 2007, the...

If you ignore relatively high U.S. rates of violence, traffic accidents and the like, does the U.S. have the world’s highest life expectancy? Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York and outspoken opponent of Democratic health-care reform schemes, made that argument last week on the Daily Show.

On September 22, 1993, President Clinton, in an impassioned address to a joint session of Congress, unveiled his Health Security Act to the American people. He laid out six principles: security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality and responsibility, and explained in unambiguous language how each of these principles were embodied in the Health Security Act. Clinton, despite his failings, which were only human failings, had something that Obama didn’t have although he thought he did and many in the media gave him credit for having. Clinton truly had a transformational vision for health care and that vision was masterfully expressed in...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, often the harbinger of bad news about e. coli outbreaks and swine flu, recently had some good news: The life expectancy of Americans is higher than ever, at almost 78. Discussions about life expectancy often involve how it has improved over time. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy for men in 1907 was 45.6 years; by 1957 it rose to 66.4; in 2007 it reached 75.5. Unlike the most recent increase in life expectancy (which was attributable largely to a decline in half of the leading causes of death...

IF I went to a Democratic town hall, I'd probably boo, too. Hence, accord ing to various Democrats and supporters of ObamaCare, I'm paranoid and just a bit unpatriotic. Well, let me dilate on my paranoid treachery for a moment. Under the plan discussed at President Obama's infomercial-esqe town halls, America would cut costs and expand coverage while avoiding rationing. Apparently, it's paranoid to think that's too good to be true. Imagine you're in charge of bringing pie to a company picnic. You're planning to provide dessert for 100 people. Then, your boss says you need to hand out pie...

Want to live to a ripe old age? By far the most important factor in life expectancy is wealth; richer people tend to eat healthfully and smoke and drink less. They also have access to the best health care. Affluent countries also tend to have low rates of violent crime and civil unrest. The following countries have the highest average life expectancies in the world. In case you're wondering, the United States, with an average life expectancy of 77.85, ranks 48th. Get started now and see the list of countries with the highest life expectancy. 1. Andorra: 83.51 Years Located...

Lies, damned lies and statistics. One of the more deceitful arguments for socialized medicine hinges on the assertion that Americans don’t live as long as citizens in other industrialized countries because we don’t provide health care for everyone. The press is complicit in this prevarication by running stories like this one from the AP: "WASHINGTON—Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries. For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles. Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan...

Last week, the National Center for Health Statistics announced that the average life expectancy for Americans has risen to an all-time high of 78 years. In addition, record high life expectancy was recorded for both white males and black males (76 years and 70 years, respectively) as well as for white females and black females (81 years and 76.9 years). This is obviously good news. But a question nags—why are people in other countries living longer on average than Americans? After all, we are the country that spends the most money per capita on health care. For example, according to...

WASHINGTON — New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades. Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap. One of the researchers, Gopal K. Singh, a demographer at the Department of Health and Human Services, said “the growing inequalities in life expectancy” mirrored trends in infant mortality and in death from heart disease and certain cancers. The gaps have...

The 2007 Human Development Report says Iceland now leads annual United Nations Index. Iceland has narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today. Norway had held the number one ranking for the previous six years. This change in ranking is a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita figures, stress the Report authors. Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries. For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles. Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands. "Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute...

Share this with All your Friends... And SHOW this to your children and grandchildren !!!! THE YEAR 1907 This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! The year is 1907. One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907: ************************************ The average life expectancy in the U.S. Was 47 years old. Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. Had a bathtub . Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City Cost eleven dollars. There...

Media: Communist regimes are known to falsify and distort statistics, but they rarely get away with it unless Western media play along. They scored a big hit recently with data about Cuba's storied life expectancy. In a widely distributed news story, the Associated Press last week explained why Cubans were living such long, healthy lives under their 47-year totalitarian dictatorship. Taking the word of Cuban officials, it credited the island's "mild climate," "free medical care" and "low-stress Caribbean lifestyle." Right on cue, CBS gave "thanks to the socialist island state's free health-care system" that's there so "fortunately." But media claims...

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals Date: March 17, 2007 Black-white Life Expectancy Gap Narrows, But Remains Substantial Science Daily — Reductions in the death rate from homicide, HIV disease, unintentional injuries - and among women, heart disease - have contributed to narrowing the life expectancy gap between blacks and whites in the United States, although substantial inequalities and challenges remain, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA. Life expectancy at birth has generally been increasing in the United States since at least the late 19th century. For as long as data have been reported by race/ethnicity,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - George Johnson, considered California's oldest living person at 112 and the state's last surviving First World War veteran, had experts shaking their heads over his junk food diet. "He had terrible, bad habits. He had a diet largely of sausages and waffles," Dr. Stephen Coles, founder of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Friday. The 5-foot-7, 140-pound Johnson died of pneumonia Wednesday at his Richmond home in Northern California. "A lot of people think or imagine that your good habits and bad habits contribute to your longevity," Coles said. "But...

Americans' longevity hits new highCDC: Life expectancy rose to 77.9 years in 2004, deaths dropped By Kristen Gerencher, MarketWatch Last Update: 11:43 AM ET Apr 21, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shore up those retirement-account contributions. Americans are living longer than ever before, according to preliminary data the government released this week. The total number of deaths declined by almost 50,000, or 2.4%, from 2003 to 2004, the largest one-year drop in several decades, according to a preliminary report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The last time the number of deaths fell...

The media now interrupt their regularly scheduled fear-mongering to report good news: life expectancy is up. The Free Market Project has documented the media’s scare campaigns on everything from bird flu to obesity, global warming, and even Heelys, a brand of roller skate-sneakers for kids. But sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut. All three broadcast networks found time in the April 19 evening newscasts to nibble on the new numbers released by the federal government. “We have news here tonight about life and death in America, and it is all good news,” “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams...

ATLANTA -- In what appears to be an amazing success for American medicine, preliminary government figures released Wednesday showed that the annual number of deaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 -- the biggest decline in nearly 70 years. The 2 percent decrease, reported by the National Center for Health Statistics, came as a shock to many, because the U.S. is aging, growing in population and getting fatter. In fact, some experts said they suspect the numbers may not hold up when a final report is released later this year. Nevertheless, center officials said the statistics, based...

The life expectancy of men and women in several African countries has fallen below 40, due to poverty and disease. The 10 countries in the world with the lowest life expectancies all are African, according to UN study reported on by the BBC. Zimbabwe has the world’s lowest life expectancy, with women expected to live until 34 and men until 37. The life expectancy for women dropped by two years in the last year. The UN report found that Swaziland and Sierra Leone have life expectancy rates below 40 as well. Low life expectancy rates in Africa are attributed to...