Best healthcare system in the world?

In America, we often hear - mostly from our politicians - that we have the “best healthcare in the world”. This sounds good but doesn't check when we look at life expectancy comparison by countries. Japan remains clearly in the lead, with a bunch of tiny nations and principalities, followed by most European Nations.

The good old USA settles for 35th place, just below the 80 years average mark. The rest of the ranking is fairly obvious. I arbitrarily listed the countries I was most interested in (the data is from a 2015 United Nation compilation). So why is it that the country touting its horn the most is not number one? Where is the so much praised “American exceptionalism?”

Well it comes mostly from two reasons. Social inequalities are higher in the US than in other developed nations, creating a difficult access to healthcare and a fairly high rate of infant mortality. Add to that America's terrible eating habits as well as our questionable food regulations, and you have the keys to our dismal performance.

Both reasons, in many ways, are the result of unbridled capitalism and profit or greed at any cost. The quality of some of our hospitals can world-class, but it's not enough yet to pull our entire nation towards better health; we still need to work hard on these two factors first!