Opinion: With our healthcare system, it’s no wonder life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped

To the editor: This should come as no surprise. The U.S. is the only industrialized country that refuses to make decent healthcare available to all. (“On average, people born in the U.S. in 2015 will live 36.5 days fewer than those born in 2014,” Dec. 8)

We spend about double per capita on healthcare as any other industrialized nation, but our outcomes are relatively terrible. This will only get worse because the country will soon by led only by the Republican Party, which has routinely opposed efforts to make healthcare available to all.

Anybody who wants to know how other countries deliver healthcare to all should read “The Healing of America” by journalist T.R. Reid. It is possible, but we do not have the political will.

Sue Guilford, Orange

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To the editor: The article reports that a person born in 2015 can expect to live 36.5 fewer days than someone born in 2014. This is 78.8 years as opposed to 78.9.

Most of this article reports on the statistically significant increase in the number of registered deaths in the U.S., but a decrease in life expectancy of fewer than 40 days at the end of 78-plus years (more than 28,750 days) that is not meaningful received the negative headline banner.

John Conway, Manhattan Beach

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