None of the countries that have better health care outcomes than the US are even close to the running water is optional" level of poverty. Are you really suggesting that the scope and quality of healthcare has nothing to do with health outcomes? That is quite counter-intuitive and I think requires some explanation beyond suggesting that I lack a brain.
You misread my statement. The reason I drew that parallel was to illustrate that countries below that bar, in relative terms, have much bigger "healthcare problems" than we do. They lack things like running water and basic sanitation, things which kill a shitload of people. My point in mentioning this is to illustrate that people who live below that bar are probably not dying of the same things someone in the first world is dying of.
You're not going to sit there and try to tell me that, something like the difference in life expectancy of 2.5 years in favor of Canada is entirely attributable to the differences in healthcare systems?
My point is that comparison would work if "all other things were equal" but they clearly are not. This type of argument is as stupid as the one where antis and pro gunners who compare violent crime rates in the US relative to other countries- when the reality is, that it's one of the dumbest ways to make the comparison because it completely ignores all the other significant, low order factors that make up the statistic. It's being disingenuous, on a good
day.
-Mike