Letters to the Editor
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What about lack of health insurance as a factor?
The countries listed at the end of this piece, in Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and so on, all have nationalized health systems. Everyone has access to at least some health care. It's a well-known problem that poor and low-middle income people don't have access to adequate health care, or money to pay for expensive prescriptions. The British have better lifelong overall health as a population than the US does, even without the same level of high-tech medical machinery that we have.
We have the best health care in the world, for people who can afford to use it.
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Gee, there seems to be an elephant in the room
Life expectancy for men is, and has always been, greater than for women. On average, an American woman lives 7 years longer than a man -- that's about 10%. If the situation were reversed, there'd be Congressional hearings, protests, commercials. You'd have the Almighty Eve Ensler writing a play about it. But, as usual, since it's men who are taking the hit here, who cares? You people are such incredible hypocrites. Sometimes reading this site is like reading The Onion -- you know -- "World Comes to An End -- Women Suffer Most."
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Lack of Health Care Not the Only Culprit
As background, I state the following as someone who does believe that universal health care is a good goal and that we should be working towards it. But, I disagree with the people who have jumped on this story to say that our health care system, or, rather, a lack of it for many individuals, is solely to blame for the observed outcome. It's certainly possible, mind you, that it plays a role, but I think we have to situate this story into a larger framework of how we, or at least many people, live. Principally, this means looking at the crap we eat (partly by choice, partly by economics) and the lack of exercise many experience as principle culprits. A relative lack of leisure time in comparison to those other countries (which generally work fewer hours and have longer guaranteed holidays) is probably also of interest. More stress/less leisure + little exercise + bad food = poor health whether you have universal care or not.
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@Doppelganger
Hello...reality check.
This is Broadsbar, an area for women's issues.
Men's lower life expectancy is a serious thing and a serious story. It is not, however, the subject of -this- story.
"What about the MEN?" cannot always be the center of attention anyplace, but especially in an area devoted to women's issues.
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I like what they're doing in LA for this problem
I think poor personal habits and the lack of health insurance conspire together to make people more vulnerable.
I just had a colonoscopy. In the followup, the doctor advised that the best way to prevent colon cancer is daily exercise and a low fat, high fiber diet.
That kind of advice is a lot easier to follow when you can afford a gym membership and high quality protein and high quality carbs like grass fed lamb and sustainably farmed gourmet brown rice.
I can see how poor people who don't have health insurance are not going to be hearing this advice very often from anyone who matters and they won't have the resources to follow through on the advice either.
They're trying to do something about the exercise part in Los Angeles. They're building this really cool public exercise equipment like treadmills and elliptical trainers and weight machines.
Only they're building this equipment to be really tough, to withstand the worst that the tough urban environment can throw at it.
And they're putting these little free public gyms in places where the working and non-working urban poor can get to them easily.
Now they're becoming popular. People really are using them.
I think we should do this on a national basis. This doesn't solve the whole problem, but exercise really is an important part of health maintenance, and this could solve part of the problem.
They're finding out now that regular aerobic exercise not only protects your physical health, it also protects your mental health and your cognitive abilities.
So we should be building these kinds of free public gyms everywhere we see large concentrations of poor people who can't afford a regular gym.
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It has NOTHING to do with health care
I don't have the numbers by any means, but I am pretty sure that more people are covered by health insurance now, than they were, say , 50 years ago.
But even if you have the best health care in the world, if your culture includes mass amounts of high fat high sugar foods, sitting in front a computer all day, and sitting in front of a TV all night, chances are you're not going to live as long.
Lack of exercise and nutrition are the main culprits. It's only going to get worse unless the Internet, XBox, and McDonalds all disappear.
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The subtlety of statistics
Re this:
Altogether, "19 percent of American women -- nearly 1 in 5 -- are now experiencing stagnating or falling life expectancy."
Well. 19% of American women live in geographical areas where life expectancy is, in aggregate, falling or stagnant. That would be especially interesting if the cause was something associated with geography, as was seen with the impact on life expectancy of industrial pollution in Eastern Europe.
Since the causes seem to be poor diet, smoking, and lack of exercise, I would guess that plenty of women in those districts are *not* experiencing falling life expectancy if they are not smoking, exercise a bit, and watch their weight.
Similarly, living outside of those districts does not confer a glorious immunity allowing a person to light up, snack up, and sit back.
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@kufir, do some math please
How old are these impoverished rural women whose reduced life expectancy is now being measured through their premature deaths from diabetes and emphysema?
Those women probably never used an X-Box in their lives. Most of them have probably never even SEEN one!
How do we know that exercise and diet are important to prevent disease?
We go to the doctor, and the doctor tells us these things in person and tells us we need to do them to prevent disease.
If you don't have health insurance, you won't be seeing any doctors and you won't be getting this kind of advice from anyone who matters.
It's all related.
When you have health insurance, your insurance company and the doctors who are paid through your insurance company have strong financial incentives to steer you towards behavior that will keep you from getting sick.
That's why health insurance is important. It's not just part of the cure. It's part of the strategy for prevention of disease too.