China's life expectancy is now higher than that of the US | Hacker News Reader

China's life expectancy is now higher than that of the US

qz.com

10 pointstrasz6 comments

Of course they do. China achieved nearly universal health insurance coverage in 2011. Their health reforms have been well-recognized internationally.

In the United States almost 20% of the GDP is wasted on a broken system. Most of the money ends up in a few pockets. With health not being incentivized or subsidised, you have to be wealthy to be healthy. It's one of the last countries that couldn't achieve universal health coverage. Without it most are discouraged to seek a doctor unless their problem is life threatening, or even call an ambulance, which apparently can bankrupt you in the United States. People can't even afford insulin, which barely cost anything to make. And it all ends up in a few pockets.

When making cross-country comparisons you should adjust for race and ethnicity when possible. A study of Asian Americans at https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/58/5/1631/178... says

"Nationally, Chinese had the highest life expectancy (males e0 = 86.8; females e0 = 91.3), followed by Asian Indians, Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos, and Vietnamese, generally reflecting the pattern expected given their educational attainment, our primary indicator of socioeconomic status."

Seems a bit of a stereotype to assume that every Chinese in China has scored straight A and has a highly educated and well-paid job. Like everywhere some do well in school, some don't. Some have good jobs, some don't.

On average Chinese are poorer than Americans, and many of them are a lot poorer than Americans and live a life that's not so easy.

The fact that people of Chinese descent in the US do better than the local average does not seem relevant.

Doesn't seem so pertinent, given that Chinese life expectancy in China was much lower to the US for decades (see the 1960s-today plot in the article). It's this between-country comparison that the story is about.

Chinese life expectancy was depressed for many decades by severe poverty, and it's good that it has grown along with the economy. Convergence was to be expected. It is a problem that U.S. life expectancy has declined in recent years.

Yes, I think that's the message here too. Not about any differences and innate difference, but about the quality of life / poverty improvements in China and the drop (e.g. rising infant mortality) in the US.

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