According to the
World Health Organization, someone born in the United States will not, on average, live as long as someone born in England, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Malta, Netherlands, France, Finland, and other countries, even though we spend more than they do on health care.
In fact, we spend more than any other country on health care, but rank at the very
bottom among the wealthiest countries on the quality of our health care system. (The United Kingdom, ranked in first place, spends only about 40% of what the United States spends, yet achieves such better health for its population.)
We're not the happiest country, either - with a rank of 17 in a 2013 United Nations
report. Interestingly, the countries where people live the longest also tend to have the highest levels of happiness.
How can our bodies and our spirits get into better shape?
In thinking about health, we often jump immediately to health care. However, effective health care probably only accounts for about 20 percent of the reasons why we are healthy (or not). Our health depends on much more. The condition of our bodies, the illnesses that afflict us, and even how long we live depend largely on the social determinants of health. These social determinants include our housing, our income, our education, the availability of nutritious food, air quality, the level of crime in our neighborhood, facilities to promote physical activity, and other aspects of our environment. In short, many of the factors that lead to illness, or promote good health, lie outside of the health care system.