[填空题]
If life expectancy were a marathon, the United States is
fading from the pack. Although everyone is living longer, the inhabitants of
other industrialized nations have made more dramatic strides in life expectancy
than Americans have, which consequently leads to the result that Americans, who
are once on par with Italy and New Zealand in the middle of the pack now rank
below Spain and Greece near the end.
On the face of it, this
shouldn’t be happening.
Healthier nations are usually wealthier
nations. The United States ranks only after Luxembourg and Norway of the 30
richest nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), but it now ranks 22nd in life expectancy.
The problem could be anything but inadequate healthcare spending. The US
spends $1 of every $7 of its gross domestic product on healthcare, more than any
other OECD nation that typically devotes less than $1 in $10 of GDP to the
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