England healthier than U.S.: Credit socialized medicine?

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(CBS) Americans love to poke fun at the English for having bad teeth and bland food. But when it comes to good health, Britons may have the last laugh.

Compared with Brits, Americans have higher rates of many chronic medical problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and asthma, a new study shows. What's more, obesity and high cholesterol are less common in England than in the U.S., according to the study of nearly 40,000 Americans and 70,000 Brits, published in the March issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Among young men, heart attacks are more common in the U.S. than in England, the study showed. And American women of all ages have higher blood pressure and more heart attacks and strokes than their counterparts in England.

How did British docs react to the news? The study's lead author relayed their blunt assessment.

"They were saying, 'The U.S. must be doing really bad because they're worse than us, and we're worse than the rest of the European countries,'"Dr. Melissa Martinson, a research associate at Princeton University, told HealthDay.

Ouch.

Martinson said it wasn't clear why the blokes across the pond are so much healthier than Yanks."Why health status differs so dramatically in these two countries, which share much in terms of history and culture, is an unresolved puzzle," she wrote in the study.

Ironically, the very socialized healthcare system many Americans deplore might be responsible for Brits' better health. Although the U.S. spends more on health-care and has more high-tech medicine than any other country, Americans see primary-care doctors less frequently than English people do, the BBC reported.

Health experts agree that one key to improving health in the U.S. will be eating more healthfully and reforming our couch potato ways. The Obama administration is pushing the better-lifestyle agenda with the First Lady's Let's Move campaign.

But bringing Americans' health in line with Britons'? That may be a long, difficult struggle.

Call it the American Revolution, Part Two?

[jack001500]

The information that these agencies usually carry include information relating to the credit history of the individual.
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[jack001500]

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<a href="http://creditreferenceagencies.org.uk/"rel="dofollow">Credit Reference Agencies</a>

[afmcalax]

If you think you will convince conservative with truth and facts; you are a delusional group. The goal of corporations and their Republican slaves is to eventually make health care so expensive that all corporations drop it and force workers to pay for their own just as they did for retirement. These companies will then use those medical funds to increase executive salaries and benefits and go to Wall Street for another round of worthless and destructive string of mergers and acquiaitions. The Republican vision is to make sure American workers enjoy 3rd world medical care while they and their corporate bosses enjoy the best medical care tax-payer money can buy.

[dannysteele]

To pleiadies1, my original comment was meant to be sarcastic. I know that there are no death panels there nor were they ever part of the US health care plan. I would much rather we in the US had the UK health care system as it obviously works better than here.

[pleiadies1]

I apologise unreservedly for getting the wrong end of the stick - sorry.

[goobicus]

I have lived in both Britain and the U.S. and believe that the main difference is stress. I believe that it is less stressful to live in London England than to live in rural America and one of the main factors of this stress is healthcare.

[pleiadies1]

While I welcome your positive comment, but I don't think you are correct. Most people who live in London would say it's just about the most stressful place you can live in - the pace of life just about anywhere else is slower than there. Retiring to the country is an ideal for many, but achieved only by a wealthy minority. In the UK people who live in rural areas enjoy on the whole better health than those who live in urban areas.

The vast rural hinterland of the US is one of your country's great assets, and given more of your population live in the country than does ours, they should be healthier than appeas to be so. I agree with you though that your healthcare system may at least in part be responsible for some of this disparity.

[dannysteele]

Does Sarah Palin know about this?

Obviously, Britain weeds out the the unhealthy people with death panels.

DS

[pleiadies1]

You foolish, ignorant individual. How dare you. My mother, who is 82 and chronically ill with heart failure and kidney failure has been kept alive by our National Health Service for many years - she undergoes kidney dialysis 3 times a week, and the care she receives is exceptional. She has nearly died several times, and thank God, they have saved her each time.

If we lived in your country we'd have had to sell our home to pay medical bills, but aside from that I really don't think she would still be with me today if your callous system that benefits only some people operated here in the UK.

Your system is unfair, disenfranchises the most vulnerable people and seems very profit driven and uncaring to us. I wouldn't want your system for all the tea in China.

There are no such thing as death panels - if there were, our society wouldn't tolerate it.