The Washington Post: US Life Expectancy Varies by More Than 20 Years From County to County

Life expectancy at birth reflects the overall mortality level of a population, but the fragmented nature of US health care – with state oversight of health insurance and regulation – contributes to a 20-year gap among some counties. Life expectancy in some places like Kentucky is in decline while rising in parts of New York, California and Alaska. A report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests that poverty, exercise, lack of access to care and screenings influence life expectancy. The report follows previous findings that “the United States is failing to keep up with improvements in longevity seen in other affluent nations,” reports Joel Achenbach for the Washington Post. The United States spends more than $9000 per capita on health care, twice as much as countries like Australia or Canada that focus on prevention. Health care expenditures represent almost 18 percent of the US gross domestic product, and Inefficiencies erode US competitiveness. The United States attempts to revise its system for health care coverage for the second time in less than a decade, but still resists a nationalized and universal system favored by other affluent nations. – YaleGlobal