The first thing Magekillr posted was a list of life expectancies by country as of 1999, right? The States were 24th with an average of around 70 years. According to Wikipedia we're now 38th with an average of 78 years. The Netherlands are 16th and are at just under 80 years. Not a big difference, no? Not enough that you can solely blame health care like Magekillr's liberal blogs did. We also have a gigantic population. That has to count for something too. Lets split this up. First part->Okay so you want to live two years less, cool with me Second part->Nononononononono NO NO NO NO NO. You are such a big country, no wonder you got a gigantic population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density Look at that, we are on 28 with states like monaco, san marino and vatican being above us, those aren't real countries. United states=178. So no, a big population doesnt count in a big country.