News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged people of all groups. Parent comment

Re:Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged ... by wlll on Monday December 02, 2019 @10:06AM (#21682947)
A couple of thoughts:

1. In the UK the number of people with private medical insurance was (a couple of years ago) around 12% (according to one source). I don't know anyone who has it personally, I don't (and I can afford it). Do you know what the figures are for other European countries?

2. Is it possible that having a (relatively) cheap and functional state provided health care system keeps insurance costs down? If you're charging some large amount of money for health insurance and the alternative is effectively free* then you'd think that people wouldn't bother with it.

* you pay for it anyway in taxes, it's not a lot of money, or it's free, depending on your income level.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged ... by igravious on Monday December 02, 2019 @10:40AM (#21683302)
According to the WHO the rate for the UK is 3.4% – the reason why you personally don't know anybody who has it is because hardly anyone (1 in 33 people) has it.

source, WHO: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/310838/V...

[ Parent | on HN ]