Very long and well argued review of sources of excess mortality in developed countries. Bottom line: Obesity! and other non-medical factors like automobiles. Big implications about how we should spend money to increase life expectancy.
While driving at large is safe, there are a few high risk subsets of driving: speeding, drunk driving, and inclimate weather.
1) Healthcare spending has rapidly diminishing returns, not only comparing the US to Europe, but comparing countries within Europe (such as the Netherlands versus Spain).
2) The lower life expectancy in the US can be explained mostly by higher obesity. US states with similar obesity to European countries have similar life expectancy.
Every time I read about weight the dangers of an extra 10 lbs. seem to be pretty ambiguous. Though I'm totally going to drop that 10 lbs. I only had 2 donuts today.
From wikipedia: >The National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC showed that 39.6% of US adults age 20 and older were obese as of 2015-2016 (37.9% for men and 41.1% for women).[1] Obesity in an adult is defined as a BMI of 30 and above.
The Average american male is 5'10. A "normal healthy" BMI of 22 is 153 lbs. A BMI of 30 is 209 lbs. [2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States [2] https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmi...
Suicides and obesity can also be caused by low income and drug abuse, so it sounds like the author may be seeing causation where correlation is more accurate.
This is an important distinction.
While obesity likely does reduce income somewhat (due to stereotypes), income can be considered an independent variable here.
Relatedly, we know that obesity is very hard to treat, while poverty is incredibly easy to treat on an individual level. The only reason we don't is because people see treatment of poverty as unfair, while treatment of obesity is not seen that way.
Obesity is prevalent in both the middle class and poor, with the middle class slightly leading the poor[1]
>39% of people ≤130% of the federal poverty line (FPL) are obese.
>40.8% of people 130 to 350% of the FPL are obese.
While individuals should be brought out of poverty for other reasons, it is not a cure-all for obesity. If anything can be implied by the correlation, it will make the problem worse, and the healthcare system should prepare for this.
Almost all of these things aren't really "Healthcare". I don't need to go to a Dr. to know I should lose 10 lbs. Maybe - maybe, maybe - a Dr. can help me quit heroin (frankly I doubt it) and certainly a Dr. can give me a flu shot.
Most of "healthcare" money has nothing to do with longevity. If my buddy had a heart attach you can spend $500,000 on treatment. Heck, you can give him a new heart. It's all great. Who would say no? Not me. (He's my buddy after all).
At population scale though that does nothing for longevity. At population scale you'd be better off setting the speed limit to 40mph. Taxing alcohol to high heaven. Playing tons of old Erol Flynn movies (To encourage people to get into sword fights instead of gun fights.)
None of that stuff is sexy though. Even the non-crazy version of that list is un-sexy. It probably doesn't cost a lot of money but it royally pisses off people. People also vote. They don't like it if you try to run their lives for them - even if you would technically do a better job then those idiots do. Except for me. And I'm going to lose that 10 lbs. really soon.
Socialized medicine and other forms of "planned state healthcare" seem to do a better job promoting lifestyle changes and preventative medicine, which reduces the costs of these externalities.
And many more similar questions.