Misleading WHO Health Care Report - Part I

According to the WHO the United States is ranked 24th in the world in life expectancy. People in the U.S. live to be an average of 70 years old while people in Japan (ranked 1st) live to be an average of 74.5 years old.  

So according to this statistic one could come to the conclusion that the United States has inferior health care. But that conclusion would be wrong.  

While quality of health care plays some role in life expectancy, there are many, many other factors that play into this statistic as well. For life expectancy rates to mean anything at all in relation to health care one would have to control for things such as homicide rates, accident rates, diet, exercise, genetics, smoking rates, etc.  

When these rates are controlled for the United States is at or near the top of the heap.  

Americans are far more mobile than the rest of the world. We are far more likely to own a care and use it than any other country. Thus higher auto fatality rates.  

Also, because of our wealth Americans find all kinds of dangerous ways to spend their time from mountain climbing, to skiing, to eating junk food on a daily basis.  

All of these things are important issues in and of themselves, but they have little to do with the quality of the health care system in America.