[onetimeuse001]

Life expectancy is not entirely medical and is not a particularly good way to compare countries. Consider that among the top causes of death in the US are "accidents" (predominantly motor vehicles) and suicide, both of which are anomalously high in the US.

Maybe I am getting it wrong but does it matter how you die? Generally speaking (averaged out,) if you live in US and do what the average person does, you will get in accidents and deal with the pressures that push some to suicides (around 10 to 22 per 100,000 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-14/suicide-rates-rise-... .) Even if you are careful, the recently licensed teenager, to stereotype, can ram his car into yours.

[tptacek]

Yes, it matters a lot how you die. For instance, there are 2,900 hippopotamus-related fatalities worldwide every year. Zero of those occur in the US. If you compare the US to Subsaharan Africa by hippo fatality, all you learn is that Subsaharan Africa has hippos.

[onetimeuse001]

But they have less cars, to take an example. Dead is dead was my point and in whatever country you live, you will deal with the cars, lions, tundra or whatever.

[tptacek]

Sure, and it does seem to be true: life expectancy in part tells you "this country has more cars than hippos". The car/hippo ratio is a very different concept than "quality and outcome of health care systems".