The Wichita Eagle ran an AP piece by Stephen Ohlemacher today on "U.S. slipping in life expectancy rankings." This is hardly news -- as the piece notes, "For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles." But the US has now dropped from 11th two decades ago to 42nd now, trailing Europe and Japan, of course, but also countries like Jordan. Quote:

"Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

He doesn't explain what, but the simple answer is that what we're seeing is the legendary efficiencies of the private sector at work. The problem is that life expectancy, or any other normal measurement of health, is not the object of all that efficiency. The real goal is the diversion of GDP to health care spending, and the private sector has been so successful at that that Americans pay twice as much for health care as any other nation in the world. It's also likely that the industry's incentives favor inadequate treatment, since that leaves more headroom for the blind hope that spending a little more might actually achieve some gain. If we had a good health care system, the problem isn't that we'd want to use it more; it's that we'd want to reduce the unnecessary costs, not least of which is the industry's profit margin. So keeping everyone nervous keeps the money flowing, and, well, if the US health care industry does anything well, it's scaring the dickens out of people.