What makes U.S. life expectancy so short

Recent news articles indicate that life expectancy in the United States has reached an all-time high. Exceptions to this general trend include many counties, located primarily in the southern United States. Expert analyses of the lower-than-average life expectancy in these counties generally conclude that unhealthy lifestyles are primarily responsible, i.e., they did it to themselves. A broader look at factors that influence life expectancy is in order.

It is seldom noted that our life expectancy ranks 36th among the world's countries, according to a recent United Nation's study. These data suggest that life expectancy in the United States is the same as Cuba, and lower than that of Japan, Australia, Sweden, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and many other developed countries.

A common thread that unites the majority of developed countries with higher life expectancy than ours is the acceptance and implementation of universal health care. Although some will argue that universal health care is an undesirable, socialist policy, this view is not shared by most developed countries. At some point the humanity and efficacy of universal health care will hopefully trump the material concerns of insurance and pharmaceutical companies and their politically conservative minions. Access to adequate health care increases life expectancy, but like harmful exposure to environmental toxins, it is typically not a matter of personal choice.

Robert J. Boes

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