China Overtakes US For Healthy Lifespan, WHO Data Finds (reuters.com)

According to World Health Organization data, China has overtaken the United States in healthy life expectancy at birth for the first time. The data from 2016 finds Chinese newborns can look forward to 68.7 years of healthy life ahead of them, compared with 68.5 years for American babies. "American newborns can still expect to live longer overall -- 78.5 years compared to China's 76.4 -- but the last 10 years of American lives are not expected to be healthy," reports Reuters. From the report: The United States was one of only five countries, along with Somalia, Afghanistan, Georgia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where healthy life expectancy at birth fell in 2016, according to a Reuters analysis of the WHO data, which was published without year-on-year comparisons in mid-May. The best outlook was for Singaporean babies, who can count on 76.2 years of health on average, followed by those in Japan, Spain and Switzerland. The United States came 40th in the global rankings, while China was 37th. In terms of overall life expectancy China is also catching up with the United States, which Reuters calculations suggest it is on course to overtake around 2027. Meanwhile U.S. life expectancy is falling, having peaked at 79 years in 2014, the first such reversal for many years.

Comments

lies

[slashmydots]

China is also very well known for lying about things and faking stats to appear better than everyone else. It goes all the way from the local level with fake recycling bins that go straight to trash pickup to faking national statistics.

Re:lies

[tttonyyy]

China is also very well known for lying about things and faking stats to appear better than everyone else. It goes all the way from the local level with fake recycling bins that go straight to trash pickup to faking national statistics.

It's easier to focus on that reassurance rather than the decline in U.S. healthy life expectancy since 2014.

https://www.scientificamerican...

"These experiments show that when people's beliefs are threatened, they often take flight to a land where facts do not matter."

Sadly, this may be a case of just having to accept some unpalatable news.

What would be interesting is the "why?" which sadly the article is a little thin on. Perhaps there will be more analysis to follow.

Re:US capitalism

[PopeRatzo]

What is really needed is a free market, something capitalists hate and work against as it is not profitable.

There is no such thing as a "free market", especially when it comes to health care.

If a doctor tells you you're going to need heart surgery, or your kid needs cancer treatment, you're not going to shop around for the best price. If lung is punctured in a car accident and you're bleeding internally, you're not going to shop for the least expensive alternative to an ambulance to take you to the hospital.

There is no free market alternative for health care.