Why Do Canadians Live Longer Than Americans?

[point2point]

Maybe their environment contribute to it.

 

[woolfe9998]

Naturally different systems will have different outcomes. Having coverage is obviously a huge factor. My point is that the situation is more complicated and thus I would not expect to see life expectancies to change to match Canada. Other factors would need to be taken into account such as lifestyles we embrace and those forced on us. For example most full time health care workers have good insurance and access to equal standards of care yet lifespans are far from equal, many years in fact.

I went to a conference on health care providers which covered many things, legal, educational, and in terms of well being. Pharmacists have the lowest life expectancy of the professions, five years less than the average person, not just care providers. I should not wonder if we were to break down occupations into categories we would not find the same thing. It may well be that some of those years we lose in America involve considerably more than care proper. What are the factors? What is their impact? What if anything can be done to mitigate them? I don't think anyone has done the comprehensive work to adequately define these things and they're important too. Again that does not mean we have a perfect system, far from it.

It's known that productivity increases when there is more time off, scheduling more favorable to workers, and siestas built in - significant breaks where one can relax or snooze. These are factors that improve quality of life and health too. But we are Puritanical slaves to the clock and "common sense" says we drive people ever harder to get more done. No that's not how that works.

I think the study chose cystic fibrosis because it's a genetic disorder and its course depends less on lifestyle choices and other environmental factors and more on the quality of care. Take diabetes as a contrasting example. With diabetes outcomes can turn on the person's diet and self-discipline, factors which might be affected by cultural differences. OTOH, basing it on one disorder does limit the value the conclusion. Comparative outcomes may be different for different medical conditions. We could do worse for CF but better for, say, liver cancer.

 

[IronWing]

Canadians experience less UV damage to their DNA.

 

[brycejones]

Round ham like breakfast meat.

Facon

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

It's been brought up in here more than once... Do people honestly believe that the violence levels in the US are large enough to affect national health to a level greater than 1%? Or greater than .1% for that matter?

 

[woolfe9998]

It's been brought up in here more than once... Do people honestly believe that the violence levels in the US are large enough to affect national health to a level greater than 1%? Or greater than .1% for that matter?

I doubt it. Murder rates are higher here than in other western countries, but the total murder rate isn't high enough to effect total longevity to a significant degree.

 

[brycejones]

I doubt it. Murder rates are higher here than in other western countries, but the total murder rate isn't high enough to effect total longevity to a significant degree.

It only makes a difference in very specific populations in limited geographic areas. I'm sure there is an impact on black male life expectancy in some parts of Chicago but overall I agree it isn't a significant factor.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

At least there's two sane ones on this board :d

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I think the study chose cystic fibrosis because it's a genetic disorder and its course depends less on lifestyle choices and other environmental factors and more on the quality of care. Take diabetes as a contrasting example. With diabetes outcomes can turn on the person's diet and self-discipline, factors which might be affected by cultural differences. OTOH, basing it on one disorder does limit the value the conclusion. Comparative outcomes may be different for different medical conditions. We could do worse for CF but better for, say, liver cancer.

It also helps to have an understanding of the causative factors of diseases. Take diabetes for example. There are things like advertising pressure that may be different, but it isn't entirely about weight in itself. For example we have awful sleep habits. That in itself raises blood pressure, problems with glucose metabolism, cholesterol, and blood pressure and yes weight gain. It's a physiologic response not "self discipline".

Is there something different in nations like Canada which reduces these sorts of issues compared to the US? I'm not saying insurance isn't a factor, but I am saying that we're far from determining the relative contribution of things which add or take away from lifespan.

 

[IronWing]

Moose piss is healthier than dog piss?

 

[woolfe9998]

It also helps to have an understanding of the causative factors of diseases. Take diabetes for example. There are things like advertising pressure that may be different, but it isn't entirely about weight in itself. For example we have awful sleep habits. That in itself raises blood pressure, problems with glucose metabolism, cholesterol, and blood pressure and yes weight gain. It's a physiologic response not "self discipline".

Is there something different in nations like Canada which reduces these sorts of issues compared to the US? I'm not saying insurance isn't a factor, but I am saying that we're far from determining the relative contribution of things which add or take away from lifespan.

Yes, you're not saying anything I disagree with. There is an overarching problem though - in other western countries they have the same to slightly longer life expectancy, but they pay on average half of what we pay for healthcare. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that something is wrong with our system. If we're really getting better healthcare than they are, as we should be given that we pay double, you'd expect us to have better longevity. Yes, other factors do affect longevity, but I have a hard time seeing that every other possible variable is acting to decrease our lifespans such that even with supposedly better medical care we do not live longer. The truth is, these other variables can cut in either direction. For example, we have higher obesity rates here than in Europe, but significantly lower rates of smoking. The truth is, on the whole, we are not really getting better outcomes from our healthcare and we pay vastly more.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Yes, you're not saying anything I disagree with. There is an overarching problem though - in other western countries they have the same to slightly longer life expectancy, but they pay on average half of what we pay for healthcare. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that something is wrong with our system. If we're really getting better healthcare than they are, as we should be given that we pay double, you'd expect us to have better longevity. Yes, other factors do affect longevity, but I have a hard time seeing that every other possible variable is acting to decrease our lifespans such that even with supposedly better medical care we do not live longer. The truth is, these other variables can cut in either direction. For example, we have higher obesity rates here than in Europe, but significantly lower rates of smoking. The truth is, on the whole, we are not really getting better outcomes from our healthcare and we pay vastly more.

No argument that we need much improvement and change which can translate into lower costs.

We even discussed a possibility several years ago and I just revived it here:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...s-on-health-care.2502712/page-2#post-38821139

 

[desy]

As a Canadian I'll throw out a couple of other ideas
Poverty, there is less poverty in Canada so people's ability to seek treatment , paid or not is easier. This leads to a culture where people go to doctors and get early diagnosis.
Sin taxes, cigs and alcohol and fast food cost more providing more tax revenue to pay for UHC