USA - Worst in Preventable Deaths

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said.

Researcher Ellen Nolte said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance—about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates—probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study.

The researchers compared these rankings with rankings for the same 19 countries covering the period of 1997 and 1998. France and Japan also were first and second in those rankings, while the United States was 15th, meaning it fell four places in the latest rankings.

All the countries made progress in reducing preventable deaths from these earlier rankings, the researchers said. These types of deaths dropped by an average of 16 percent for the nations in the study, but the U.S. decline was only 4 percent.

The research was backed by the Commonwealth Fund, a private New York-based health policy foundation.

“The fact that other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less, indicates that policy, goals and efforts to improve health systems make a difference,” Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen said in a statement.

-www.reuters.com

Commentary: A Google search reveals the highest life expectancy is found in the industrialized countries of Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Spain, Australia, Italy, and Iceland.

We note that in 1925, the average global life expectancy was around 35 to 40 years. A hundred years later in 2025, it’s about 73 years. Most of the increase is attributed to advances in medicine, sanitation, and nutrition.

Regardless of these facts, there will be no change in the statement of Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”