Good Health for Less

[Michael Tee]

<<I am pretty sure that Canada also has badgers and wolverines, which are also vile-tempered critters.>>

Wolverines for sure; I think the wolverine must be the state animal of our Michigan neighbours, because I believe I've seen the state referred to as the Wolverine State and one of their state university teams is the Wolverines.  I'd guess badgers as well, but the only badgers I've ever seen were in France - - a whole family of them crossing a country road at night caught in our headlights.  Very easily identified by the unique shape of the head.  One of the U.S.S.R.'s bombers during the Cold War was called the Badger.    Must be a pretty dangerous animal, but as far as I know the wolverine is by far the more vicious.  I was just watching a TV drama (maybe J.A.G.?) a few weeks ago about a U.S. pilot crashed down in the bush in wintertime, at one point getting attacked by a wolverine.  Ugly as sin.  Mean.  It was kind of bullshit because after the guy rolled down a hill, the wolverine broke off the attack and just disappeared.  That's not consistent with what I've read about them - - they don't give up.

[Amianthus]

To be fair, there are differences in weather and climate.  Since 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border, I guess it might be a fairer comparison to check our averages against the averages for Americans who also live within 100 miles of the border.

Someone posted an article about 15-18 months back that reported a study among residents of the upper midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana, IIRC) and found their averages for longevity to be among the highest in the world. Higher than Canada and all of Europe. And this was with a similar higher percentage of diabetes and obesity, such as reported by Mikey for Canada.

The conclusions in the study were that health care providers were better at working with nearly heterogeneous populations such as those found in that region (nearly all Germanic / Norse) versus providers dealing with a more varied population in other regions. This conclusion would also apply to the higher averages in Canada and Europe versus all of the US, since each Province in Canada is nearly heterogeneous, as are most European countries, while very few states in the US are heterogeneous.

[Michael Tee]

Maybe Hitler was right and the Nordic races DO have superior genes.  Shit, where does that leave the rest of us?  In any event, looks like there has to be some other standard developed for the comparative grading of different healthcare systems.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It was kind of bullshit because after the guy rolled down a hill, the wolverine broke off the attack and just disappeared.  That's not consistent with what I've read about them - - they don't give up.

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That may have been just a TV wolverine. They come with wranglers.

I like that term "wrangler". It seems to be used in a slightly different way in the movies than in the Wild West.

The film Arachniphobia had dozens of spider wranglers listed in the credits.
I can see these guys watching the film over and over, telling their grandkids about how they made that tarantula rear up, and all those spiders march in a vast formation.