Here’s a good article giving Paul Krugman, et al, a sound drubbing on the suggestion that we need to socialize medicine because Canada – who spends less per capita on healthcare (read: rationing) – has a population that lives longer on average.
Life expectancy is a terrible proxy for evaluating a healthcare system, particularly when we can point to a host of other factors — like, oh dunno, unhealthy American lifestyles, gang violence, ethnicity makeup, etc., to explain why we don’t live as long. So don’t fall for the life expectancy line, especially given that we’re only talking about a four-year differential between the US and the leader (Japan) and a two-year differential between the US and Canada. (The numbers.)
-Max Borders
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