Recent comments in /f/dataisbeautiful

pk10534 t1_izrb1md wrote

I think we should probably be clear that life expectancy isn’t only tied to healthcare quality or expenses. Car accidents and gun-related homicides, for instance, are major contributors to U.S.’ life expectancy being so low, and those two problems wouldn’t go away with universal healthcare or any change to the health insurance system here. You might see some tangential effects, but it’s not going to change the fact that driving is dangerous and Americans drive a lot more than Cubans or Singaporeans. Mental healthcare under a single payer system might help reduce some homicides, but I can’t imagine that without massive gun control reform we would see homicide rates here fall to numbers we see in Western Europe or Japan.

Long story short, I just don’t think this is inherently the indictment of US healthcare it comes across to be at first glance - and anytime this issue comes up people for some reason think life expectancy is just about actual medical care, and it’s really a lot more broadly-encompassing than that. We need single payer healthcare here, but that alone is not going to solve some of the various issues that help determine a country’s life expectancy.

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cre8ivjay t1_izr8z0u wrote

In my experience this is true.

Most Canadians see why immigration is a good thing for Canada. It's not to say we don't have issues that some see as relating to immigration, like housing supplies, but in general most people I know agree with the original statement.

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