pk10534 t1_jdjaxw4 wrote on March 24, 2023 at 8:12 PM

Reply to comment by AverageAustralian111 in [OC] Number of physicians per 1000 residents by giteam

Thank you omg. People seem to think life expectancy directly measured the efficacy of a country’s healthcare system, and while that’s certainly a part of it, it’s not the full story. Car crashes, fried foods that cause heart disease, overdoses, homicides, suicides, etc all play info life expectancy. You could have the best hospitals and doctors in the world, but if your citizens are constantly getting into car accidents or eating unhealthy diets their entire lives, it’s still going to drag down your life expectancy.

mr_wetape t1_jdjpp3g wrote on March 24, 2023 at 9:52 PM

Well, healthcare system is not just having doctors and hospitals, promoting better eating, campaigns to safe drug usage, mental health support preventing suicides and others are all part of a good healthcare system. You can have the best doctors and hospitals, but you also make them accessible and promote good habbits in your population.

AverageAustralian111 t1_jdjyjil wrote on March 24, 2023 at 10:56 PM

If you broaden the definition of "healthcare system," some of these things could be considered due to a bad healthcare system.

Suicide has almost no correlation with healthcare availability (or standard of living more broadly)

And it would be a gigantic stretch to say, blame motor vehicle deaths on the healthcare system.

What both of us are saying is that healthcare system is a factor in life expectancy, but you can't deduce from life expectancy how good a healthcare system is.