WHO: World Health Care Ranking

So, remember during the health care debate..that whole thing about America ranking like, what, 38th or some nonsense?

Well, remember, that ranking is determined by weighing several factors, among them are infant mortality statistics, availability of medical care and life expectancy.

Life Expectancy.  Seems fair, right?  I mean, what better way to measure your country’s medical/health care than to measure the single best outcome…how long a person lives.

And guess where America ranks?  Guess who’s #1?

Well, it’s not pretty if you’re an American.  On the other hand, if you live in Japan, life is good [and long].

Coming in #1 and reigning Champion of the world is Japan.  Citizens of Japan can expect to live, on average, up to 82. years.  Here in America?  Like I said, not so bueno.  We can only expect to live 78.1 years giving us a ranking of 30–THIRTY–in the world.

Sheesh, how does that happen?  How can a nation as great and as powerful as America rank so low in life expectancy?

Well, it might be because we’re good at killing zombies:  via Coyote

Thousands of Japanese centenarians may have died decades ago

More than 230,000 Japanese people listed as 100 years old cannot be located and many may have died decades ago, according to a government survey released today.

The justice ministry said the survey found that more than 77,000 people listed as still alive in local government records would have to be aged at least 120, and 884 would be 150 or older.

The reason Japan may be so far ahead of the rest of the world has perhaps more to do with BAD advances, things like record keeping and fraud prevention, than with good health care:

The figures have exposed antiquated methods of record-keeping and fuelled fears that some families are deliberately hiding the deaths of elderly relatives in order to claim their pensions.

The nationwide survey was launched in August after police discovered the mummified corpse of Sogen Kato, who at 111 was listed as Tokyo’s oldest man, in his family home 32 years after his death.

Soon after came the discovery that a 113-year-old woman listed as Tokyo’s oldest resident had not been seen by her family for more than 20 years. Welfare officials have yet to locate Fusa Furuya, who was last seen in about 1986.

When it feels like America has the best health care–when thousands of people around the world come to America for medical care–when you look around at the squalid living conditions of other nations ranked higher and it doesn’t make sense—

Trust your gut.  We’ve got it goin’ on.

5 responses to “WHO: World Health Care Ranking

  1. Pino,

    Do you travel outside of the States?

  2. I haven’t either, very much. I ask for sheer curiosity. I am interested in your travel experience because of your statements about squalid living conditions, feelings about America’s best health care, and our relative greatness and power. Knowing your travel experience helps me know how to qualify your opinions on ranking our nation against others. I guess that I want to know how much I can, “Trust your gut.”

    Knowing that you have limited travel experience tells me to put less weight on your statements. It’s nothing personal, just trying to update my expectations in a rational manner.

    In my quest for knowledge I’ve found that I can learn many facts about a topic from reading about the subject. But, understanding an experience isn’t something that I, for one, can never quite get from a book.

    For instance, I recently traveled to Germany and France. While I was there, I experienced a different situation than I have ever seen in the States (where I have traveled to most, not all). There are so many dimensions that go into, for lack of a better expression, living conditions, that even between countries with relatively similar standards of living (according to the common indices, etc.) that it becomes very difficult to compare without having experience. Of course, we look for more objective measures to compare upon, such as life expectancy because subjective measures, like my experiences are, well, subjective. Anyway, I’m rambling.

    I hope that you and I both have the opportunity to travel and see this sort of experience more in the future.

    P.S. I enjoy the ability to ask a blogger questions. This is a quality of blogs that printed press simply can not match!

    • Knowing that you have limited travel experience tells me to put less weight on your statements.

      Fair enough. I don’t begrudge you the exploration. I for sure wouldn’t reply on a single voice for information.

      Good luck. And stop by often.

  3. Pingback: That Whole Life Expectancy Thing? « Tarheel Red

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