Why Does the United States Rank 37th in the World for Life Expectancy?

[This Editorial on U.S. Health Care began yesterday.]

Last year Nicolas Bakalar wrote in the New York Times that “The main reason for the high rate [of infant mortality in the U.S. according to the C.D.C.] is preterm delivery”

Curious as to how the C.D.C. collects survey data on preterm delivery, I found this. "Data on maternal health and behavioral risk factors and infant birth outcomes are collected on low-income women who participate in federally funded public health programs."

So the infant mortality data comes from people already receiving federally funded heath care. Why would anyone assume that a new federally funded healthcare program will provide any better care than those federal programs already in place?

Doctors and researchers scratch their heads over "the gap" - why the incidence of infant mortality is so much higher among low income blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. than the rest of the population.

But let's get back to the OECD statistic. Philip Miller, founder and Medical Director of Los Gatos Longevity Institute, delved into the OECD life expectancy statistic further. His conclusions were published at the “liberal American news website” the Huffington Post .

Please come back tomorrow for my conclusion on Why the U.S. Healthcare System Ranks 37th in the World .

Tags: life expectancy, interpreting statistics, life expectancy at birth, increasing U.S. life expectancy, fixing healthcare, throw the baby out with the bath water, high infant mortality, skewed healthcare statistic