From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jun 23 2000 - 15:56:38 MDT
The World Health Organisation 2000 Report that came out this week should, in
theory, give us some help in choosing the healthiest places. However I found
the summary statistics they gave to need so many qualifiers, ifs and buts,
that it became just interesting reading rather that definitive answers.
Overall Health Care top 10..
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
The US outspent all other countries at 13.7 per cent of GDP, but was rated
low because many Americans do not have health insurance. Similarly the US
average healthy life expectancy was only around 70 (about 4.5 years less
than countries like France, Austria and Japan). This was because there is a
group of up to around 10 per cent of Americans who have such poor health
that their life expectancy drops to around 50 and lowers the overall
average.
I would think the same discrepancies would apply to almost every country.
There must be a richer section with good diet and healthcare and a poorer
section with worse diet and little healthcare in every nation. So you have
to take the national averages and adjust them up or down depending on where
in each country you live and how much life and health resources you are able
to get access to.
So if you are reasonably healthy and have good finances, at present you will
probably have a life expectancy of around 80 in almost any of the modern,
developed countries.
Then you can look at other factors like weather, stimulating environment,
language, culture, safety, etc.
Hopefully Extropians would not all end up in the same country, because then
they would be a mono-culture at risk of being totally wiped out!
BillK
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