Want to be healthier? Move to Britain (another reason to hate America)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal ^ | 05/03/06 | By JOHN FAUBER

[trebb]

I took a look at life expectancy in Britain and in the U.S. - they have about 78.5 years (average for both sexes with females longer lived) and we have 77.6 years.

[steve86]

OK, JAMA - now exclude illegal aliens from your US analysis and tell us what you find.

All Hispanics were excluded.

[weegee]

If it is environmental, then which country governs would not make much difference.

[steve86]

...Because we simply have MORE people here?

The article is discussing rates, not counts.

[Tokra]

One of the big reasons for the difference is that Americans eat much better than Brits. Britons eat an average of 120 lbs. of meat per year while Americans eat 190 lbs of meat per year. (per capita figures).

If we eat richer foods, it stands to reason that we are probably not as healthy.

Then again - when you are comparing 60 million people to 300 million people, you can't get a true comparison.

[TaxRelief]

Adding insult to injury, Americans pay more than twice as much for their medical care as the Brits, $5,274 a year per person in the U.S. vs. $2,164 in England, the study notes.

If you're twice as sick, it will cost twice as much.

[stacytec]

Just pointing out the obvious, but many towns in the UK have buildings and services close together. People tend to walk to a location rather than drive. In the United States, unless you live in NYC or Chicago, locations are spread out and few cities have good public transit. You tend to drive to the place you are going to. If the stats are to be believed, I would speculate that health in the UK has to be lifestyle related because there is no way its diet related. Their food is still high in sugar and saturated fats. Clotted cream anyone?

[mc6809e]

It should be remembered that these figures are for people THAT ARE STILL ALIVE.

If you don't survive your stroke, or cancer, or diabetes, you don't end up part of the survey.

The study might then be implying the very opposite of what the author of the article believes. It may be that twice as many Americans are surviving these diseases as Britons.

[steve86]

to Utah, Nevada, SanFranciso, LA, and every state and SMSA and congressional district.

That isn't the question they were answering.

Besides, the finer and finer granularity you propose leads to a reductio ad absurdum fallacy where, taken to the extreme, you are comparing individuals, not groups.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It's all that healthy food Britian is famous for: bangers & mash; fish & chips; beans on toast; steak & kidney pie -- to say nothing of spam.

Monty Python did though:

Man: Morning!
Waitress: Morning!
Man: Well, what've you got?
Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam...
Waitress: ...spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam...

[DAC21]

Jellied Eels, Kidney Pie anyone?

[spintreebob]

compare individuals, not groups

what a great idea

[andy58-in-nh]

Not all illegals are Hispanic (just most of them).

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I had a friend that was on travel to London about 10 years ago. He had serious back problems and needed back surgery. He was a Federal Employee and had good insurance. He was taken to a hospital and put in to a ward with 25 other people with only sheets as screens. He said people were constantly waking up in the night screaming with pain, so he got little or no sleep. Also the ward was in a building that looked like something from the 1950 (not painted since then). The nurses were so busy that it took him two days to convince them he had insurance. Once they found out he had private insurance, they moved him to a private room, and he got a good doctor, had the surgery and all was well. We don't need Socialized Medicine.

I agree that Americans probably have poor eating habits and don't exercise enough. I am told that Britain is becoming more like the US (people are getting fatter).

[buwaya]

One explanation -

US people are more prone to get diagnosed earlier with all these problems, because a much higher rate of testing in the US - as an example, adult-onset diabetes is one of those things that typically comes out in a test battery than through symptoms.

[PLK]

Yeah, the ability to actually get it when you need it does tend to jack the price up a bit. ;)

And if you're past a certain age, certain medications/treatments are no longer paid for, such as insulin for 90-year old grandparents.

I am very suspect of these stats, and wonder just how much the NEGATIVE impact of socialized medicine has on these "good" morbidity figures. For example, notice they do not include mortality rates. Perhaps people are dying sooner of certain chronic illnesses BECAUSE the focus is on primary prevention, and NOT on caring for those with the chronic illnesses listed, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. If so, then those people could not be "counted" in the disease categories because they no longer exist.

[PLK]

I see we are on the same wavelength.

(I need to remember to read all the posts before I weigh in!!)

[PLK]

Do we have more people with cancer because...
...Because we simply have MORE people here?

That wouldn't be the answer because these figures have been converted into percentages.

[Celtic Conservative]

Jellied Eels, Kidney Pie anyone?

True, but What about Harry Ramsdens fish & chips? that makes up for some of Britannias culinary missteps. And with a pint of good british (or Irish) ale, nothing better.

CC

[stacytec]

My grandparents are (were) both British. Up until my grandmothers death, she would come to the USA to get Asthma treatments because there were high demand on the types of treatments she needed, which created long wait times. As you mentioned, staying at a public hospital over there isn't the same experience as staying at one here. Every time she would come to visit us, she'd arrange a trip to the hospital to take advantage of the better services.

A lot of the socialists in my neck of the woods usually ask me questions like " Well, she didn't end up going bankrupt while she was getting medical service in the UK, right?" And this is true. But sometimes the timing and availability of treatment can make the difference between quick recovery and death.