Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

If you live long enough you will most likely die from either heart disease, #2 killer, or cancer, the #1 killer. Accidental self inflicted injury is #3. We're not doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite.

Since not even having a billion will allow you to cheat death, perhaps we shouldn't allow billionaires to cheat everyone else in life.



Certain other countries in that chart have longer average lifespans than the US, eg. Canada, Germany, Australia etc.


Health outcomes in the US are bimodal -- the wealthy have the best health care in the world, and the longest lifespans. The poor basically have the equivalent of 3rd world care.

That makes the average come out to less than other countries with universal healthcare.

But it also explains why wealthy people are against universal care in the US -- because they believe their level of care will go down so that everyone else's can go up.


Cancer _incidence_ is likely only loosely related to the healthcare system. Cancer _outcomes_ probably are but incidence is more related to lifestyle choices (active vs sedentary, smoking vs non-smoking etc)


And fewer billionaires too, I bet.


    > Accidental self inflicted injury
What does that mean?


  "The leading causes of death for unintentional injury include: unintentional
  poisoning (e.g., drug overdoses), unintentional motor vehicle (m.v.) traffic,
  unintentional drowning, and unintentional falls."
From the following page. This is talking about only ages 1-44, but probably the "accidental" category means the same.

https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/animated-leading-causes.h...


Typically? Falling off a ladder and cracking your head.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: