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> Some might argue that the average lifespan has gone up a 8-10 years

I don't think anyone would argue that's what we're getting for the quadrupling in cost, because nobody else spends half as much as we do and they all live longer than we do. Cubans, Panamanians, Albanians, and the Lebanese have longer life expectancies.

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Many of these countries are such that I'd not be very-very certain about their statistics reports.

Cuba's health statistics are backed by the WHO. They were the first, for instance, to prevent mother-infant AIDS transmission.

In the UK healthcare costs about half as much (and you the consumer don't pay any of that out-of-pocket), and the average life expectancy is about three years longer here.

When doing these kind of comparisons, I feel we should separate out deaths from "excess" (drugs / alcohol / cigarettes) - or at least control for differing levels of use in the various countries. I suspect differing incidence of young people dying of drug overdoses makes a big difference to average lifespan, but it seems to me that's more reflective of a society's regulatory and legal environment than a reflection of healthcare

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