our life expectancy would not be so low.  A new report recently came out that said the US was ranked 42nd in the world in terms of life expectancy.  We even rank behind Cuba; a country that has had to deal with a US embargo and a dictator for 40+ years.

MSNBC reports that all this is quite strange.

“Something’s wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

So what's to blame?  Undoubtedly, its our pathetic excuse for a healthcare system.

Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.

This is just another said statistics that has developed during Republican governance.  Do not get me wrong. This is not the Republican's (complete) fault. America is the most obese country in the world which is certainly more a personal choice than one we are forced to make by the government. We have more wealth to make unhealthy choices with.  These however are small potatoes comapred to the fact that 45 million Americans are walking the streets with out health insurance and there are millions more walking out there who are terrified they are about to join them (because their employer has to cutback on health care spending to stay afloat) and others who feel like they already have (because their insurance barely covers the common cold).

I remember when I use to use the statistic 40 million...eventually 42 million and then it was 44 million for quite a while.  Now, I have to use 45 million. It is a disgrace that we have let it come to this over the past six years. Instead of spending their time confronting this difficult debate, the President and the Republicans in Congress have been too focused on tax cuts for the richest Americans and handing out fat checks to the pharmecutical industry. I wish we could do something about this (ANYTHING!) but as long as the Republicans have a strong presence in the Senate, American will have no comprehensive (universal or not) health care reform in the near future. Americans want universal health care and Republicans know that. Unfortunately, they also know their campaign checks don't come from average Americans but lobbyists whose businesses proft on the current broken system. We need comprehensive reform in Washington first.