alt Hacker NewsI want to agree with this, but these studies usually make a big mistake - they don't control out for the non healthcare reasons for low life expectancy.
Americans drive cars and most live in unwalkable places. These impart significant risks that the healthcare system, no matter how good, wouldn't impact.
Has anyone dug into this to identify whether they tried to account for built environment? Or food system?
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> The US had the second-highest avoidable mortality rate—deaths caused by conditions that can be prevented with primary care or treated with timely medical intervention. Only Mexico had higher avoidable mortality. Similarly, the US also had the second-highest rating on years of potential life lost, a measure used to estimate premature death. Again, only Mexico had a higher rating.
About 41k people die on the road in the US per year. While this is very high, and worse than pretty much any other developed country, it’s not going to move the needle _that_ much.
If you research "amenable", "avoidable", "preventable", and "treatable" mortality, you will find similar conclusions from studies that focus on specific aspects of the effects of healthcare on mortality.
The results are not all that different. The USA lags other rich nations, and even middle income nations like Costa Rica and Chile. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2023...