←back to thread

Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 30 years to prove

(www.nature.com)
201 points andsoitis | 2 comments | 15 Oct 24 13:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.42s | source
Show context
defrost ◴[16 Oct 24 00:22 UTC] No.41854450[source]▶
For an interesting side piece:

    Curiously, however, for a system apparently stultified by the dead hand of government, Australia’s health system far outperforms the free market-based US healthcare system, which spends nearly twice as much per capita as Australia to deliver far worse outcomes — including Americans dying five years younger than us.
The shocking truth: Australia has a world-leading health system — because of governments

Source: https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/10/16/pubic-private-healthcar...

Bypass: https://clearthis.page/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crikey.com.au%2F...

    Overall, we now have the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world.

   This is contrary to the narrative that pervades the media about our health system — one in which our “frontline” health workers heroically battle to overcome government neglect and inadequate spending, while the population is beset by various “epidemics” — obesity, alcohol, illicit drugs.

    In fact, Australian longevity is so remarkable that in August The Economist published a piece simply titled “Why do Australians live so long?”
Other references:

The Economist: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/08/23/why-do-a...

AU Gov Report: Advances in measuring healthcare productivity https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/measuring-healthcar...

replies(14): >>41854605 #>>41854613 #>>41854799 #>>41855053 #>>41855120 #>>41855218 #>>41855732 #>>41856242 #>>41856326 #>>41857738 #>>41857930 #>>41857960 #>>41858153 #>>41876405 #
ap99 ◴[16 Oct 24 11:07 UTC] No.41857738[source]▶
Maybe the worse outcome related to other factors, e.g. diet or obesity rates.

The figure I see thrown around is America has a 40% rate of obesity.

Australia looks like it's 32%.

European countries look like 20-30%.

I think these rates alone could explain life expetancy regardless of health care system.

replies(1): >>41858102 #
apwell23 ◴[16 Oct 24 12:04 UTC] No.41858102[source]▶
yep exactly. 'healthcare' should be called 'disease care' . Most ppl are too far gone to recover from their illness by the time they go to the doctor.

All the medicines they prescribe are merely to manage symptoms. I have GERD and reflux. I was given PPI after many many tests. How does taking PPI extend my lifespan. Whatever has gone wrong with my body is still there.

How is this not obvious to ppl making this absurd correlation between hospital care and lifespan.

Medicine doesn't have shit of new breed of diseases and disorders ppl are dying from. Doctors don't have answers to any of modern illnesses so how does it matter if access to a useless person is govt funded or 'free market'.

replies(1): >>41858790 #
1. r2_pilot ◴[16 Oct 24 13:24 UTC] No.41858790[source]▶
> I have GERD and reflux. I was given PPI after many many tests. How does taking PPI extend my lifespan. Whatever has gone wrong with my body is still there.

It can potentially extend your life by reducing your probability of developing esophageal cancers, improve your quality of life in the meantime, and there are other complications from untreated GERD I can't recall but would negatively impact your life.

replies(1): >>41860709 #
2. apwell23 ◴[16 Oct 24 16:03 UTC] No.41860709[source]▶
They are only approved for short term use because of myriad of side effects ( including things like life threatening colon inflammation, kidney disease ect)