Life expectancy differences between the US and other countries are dominated by just a few factors:

* Car accidents, because we drive much more and are much more spread out than other countries.

* Drug overdoses, though other countries are starting to catch up to us there.

* Homicide, because of our gun policy and the universality of firearms (which also bears on our suicide stats).

* CVD.

That last item sounds like an indictment of the US health care system, but it isn't. If you break CVD out by state, northeastern states like Massachusetts have outcomes resembling the Nordics, and Mississippi has outcomes like a developing country. But the structure of the health care system is the same in both places.

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ryanackley 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm sure there are qualifiers and rationalizations when comparing cancer survival statistics as well. As someone already pointed out, uninsured Americans aren't necessarily included. They cited sources, you rebutted without sources.

I believe a single payer system is a matter of when not if. It works just fine in other countries. In our country, the healthcare industry has evolved into extracting as many dollars as it can from the economy. This is because when someone is sick and needs treatment, healthcare providers hold all of the cards.

	▲	tptacek 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Uninsured Americans are in fact universally included in death statistics and in cancer survival outcomes; we have top-tier cancer outcomes. Europe has several universal coverage systems without single payer. The original sin of the US system isn't private insurance, it's employment-based coverage; that's the thing nobody else has.