Well, there was the whole "Then why does the rest of the world come here for medical treatment" myth that I busted a while ago. I did research on the fast-growing "medical tourism" industry and it showed quite the net OUTFLOW. Far, far more people going overseas from the United States for medical services than were coming here. The most visible example of this is busloads of American retirees going to Canada for their pharmaceuticals. I don't mean that in a metaphorical sense - I mean there really are CHARTER BUS companies that do these trips over the border to Canada.

When it vomes to these worldwide health statistics, sometimes there are differences in the way the data is collected. For example, we look worse on infant mortality because we try to save more preemies and the French don't consider a preemie a 'live birth' as quickly as we do. The British tend to let slower-moving cancers (like prostate cancer) go a bit more to the back of the 'cancer line' when it comes for scheduling treatment regimens and I hear that they DO take into consideration a patient's age. If a VERY old man has prostate cancer, there's an adult discussion as to whether or not to treat it because of the side effects of treatment. In other words, they ask the guy if he'd rather live out the rest of his days HIS way rather than practically living in the hospital.