US slips down development index, Citizens live shorter lives

I ran across this story this morning on BBC News.  The story revolves around a study conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Conrad Hilton Foundation and Oxfam America.  In the report they completed, these groups state that Americans rank 42nd among developed countries for life expecentancy, even though we spend more money per person on healthcare than any other country in the world.

It would seem that our healthcare dollar isn’t quite stretching as far as those other 41 countries, wouldn’t it?

From BBC:

Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several US charities.

The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.

Overall, the American Human Development Report ranked the world’s richest country 12th for human development.

US slips down development index

Fourty second in life expectancy and only twelfth on human development.  

That seemed rather shocking to me.  With all of the wealth this country has amassed and the technology driven economy that has slowly replaced our manufacturing based economy, these numbers just seem out of place.

The study looked at US government data on health, education and income.

The report was funded by Oxfam America, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Conrad Hilton Foundation.

The report combines measurements of health, education and income into one measurement – the human development index – based on that used by the United Nations.

The discrepancies in the human development index among different groups of Americans did NOT, I’m sorry to say, come as much of a surprise to me.  The findings, however, are still shocking considering the huge difference between the two classes of Americans, or what John Edwards has called “The Two America’s.”  Rich and poor.

snip

The US report identifies obesity and the lack of health insurance for some 47 million Americans as the most significant factors in premature death.

It also provides a snapshot of the inequalities between the richest and the poorest Americans and between different ethnic groups.

“The Measure of America reveals huge gaps among some groups in our country to access opportunity and reach their potential,” said the report’s author, Sarah Burd-Sharps.

“Some Americans are living anywhere from 30 to 50 years behind others when it comes to issues we all care about: health, education and standard of living.

“For example, the state human development index shows that people in last-ranked Mississippi are living 30 years behind those in first-ranked Connecticut.”

If there were any question of the truth behind “Two America’s” or the issue of the disparity between the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in our nation, I would hope this information would put an end to that question.

Well, for thoughtful, caring people anyway.  The Party of Greed would never agree, in public anyway.

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    • brobin on July 17, 2008 at 16:03
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    The difference of between 30 to 50 years in the human development index of health, education and standard of living for some Americans vs. others is shameful.

  1. all this effort of consumers to have it better only to die sooner and, i’d bet, more painfully than most.

    but this shows the decay and the emergence of fascism, imo view. it’s in the tell tell signs of the premeditated de_stabilizing of economies, educational systems, military. . .

  2. basic it’s not surprising no one has noticed…. It’s just this simple – As long as insurance companies stand to make zillions of dollars they will not give real healthcare changes a chance.  This is really another one of those Follow the money  issues.

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