The fraction of Americans who believe they have good health is higher than the fraction of foriegners who believe they have good health. It doesn’t follow that Americans believe they have the best health in the world. They might not know how other countries do, or be using a different scale to foriegners, or believe foriegners are unduly pesimistic, etc.
My European coworkers take sick days when they get headaches, and go to the doctor because they get headaches “frequently” (about once a month). They consider the slightest inconvenience or pain to be a massive health problem. Not that this is necessarily true of all Europeans (though thus far it’s been true of every European I’ve yet met to some degreee...), but Americans in general, and particularly men, have a more rugged and independent attitude towards healthcare, and have a considerably wider spectrum encompassing “good health.” A broken rib is an inconvenience, not a health problem.
As an American male who went to work the day after breaking his collar bone, I can testify that without a doubt, my rugged outward appearance would get thrown aside if proper health care and sick time were available to me. Scamming an x-ray by using a fake name at the hospital and carefully rationing what little methadone I could buy from local junkies, while Cowboy As Hell, is a pretty awful way to get by. I’d much rather be at home in bed mending then lifting boxes of apples with one arm and ensuring that my bones set at an odd angle.
I think that if European style health care was available here that we’d adapt pretty quickly, rugged independence be damned.
There’s a difference between rugged independence and obstinate idiocy—not that you were idiotic, as it sounds like you had no choice, but you’re treating “Aggravating injuries” as being equivalent to “Ignoring inconvenient issues.”
Now I’m reminded by a picture I saw on Facebook, making the point that rugby players are so much braver than soccer players because soccer players will pretend to be hurt when they’re hit no matter how lightly, whereas rugby players will keep on playing even with a broken rib. And I thought that, while I agree that pretending to be hurt to get a free kick or so that your opponent will get a yellow card is childish, I think that keeping on playing with a broken rib isn’t brave—it’s silly.
In Italy there’s a meme (at least on Facebook) according to which men are more likely than women to complain about minor health problems. I disagree, but being male myself I might be biased about that.
That’s actually a meme in the US, as well. However, there’s likewise a meme that men refuse to go to the hospital. I’m going with the latter, given that the CDC reports that men go to the doctor about 75% as often as women.
My female co-worker says that men are always ill and are aggravating minor health problems. She also steadily complains about her own health and has spent more time off-work for health reasons than anybody else in the department last year (no chronic disease, repeated instances of common cold or, at worst, influenza).
Needless to say, I don’t trust similar gender-related memes.
How could you measure health in absolute terms anyway? Where exactly do you set the cutoff between healthy and non-healthy? Does it vary relative to current medical technology? Does your income or socio-cultural group matter, or do you average this over everyone? Why average over the US? Why not over the world, or in developed countries, or in particular states?
The fraction of Americans who believe they have good health is higher than the fraction of foriegners who believe they have good health. It doesn’t follow that Americans believe they have the best health in the world. They might not know how other countries do, or be using a different scale to foriegners, or believe foriegners are unduly pesimistic, etc.
My European coworkers take sick days when they get headaches, and go to the doctor because they get headaches “frequently” (about once a month). They consider the slightest inconvenience or pain to be a massive health problem. Not that this is necessarily true of all Europeans (though thus far it’s been true of every European I’ve yet met to some degreee...), but Americans in general, and particularly men, have a more rugged and independent attitude towards healthcare, and have a considerably wider spectrum encompassing “good health.” A broken rib is an inconvenience, not a health problem.
As an American male who went to work the day after breaking his collar bone, I can testify that without a doubt, my rugged outward appearance would get thrown aside if proper health care and sick time were available to me. Scamming an x-ray by using a fake name at the hospital and carefully rationing what little methadone I could buy from local junkies, while Cowboy As Hell, is a pretty awful way to get by. I’d much rather be at home in bed mending then lifting boxes of apples with one arm and ensuring that my bones set at an odd angle.
I think that if European style health care was available here that we’d adapt pretty quickly, rugged independence be damned.
There’s a difference between rugged independence and obstinate idiocy—not that you were idiotic, as it sounds like you had no choice, but you’re treating “Aggravating injuries” as being equivalent to “Ignoring inconvenient issues.”
Now I’m reminded by a picture I saw on Facebook, making the point that rugby players are so much braver than soccer players because soccer players will pretend to be hurt when they’re hit no matter how lightly, whereas rugby players will keep on playing even with a broken rib. And I thought that, while I agree that pretending to be hurt to get a free kick or so that your opponent will get a yellow card is childish, I think that keeping on playing with a broken rib isn’t brave—it’s silly.
In Italy there’s a meme (at least on Facebook) according to which men are more likely than women to complain about minor health problems. I disagree, but being male myself I might be biased about that.
That’s actually a meme in the US, as well. However, there’s likewise a meme that men refuse to go to the hospital. I’m going with the latter, given that the CDC reports that men go to the doctor about 75% as often as women.
Men get sick less often than women, but worse. That’s part of the reason for this phenomenom. No referencew provided; on phone.
My female co-worker says that men are always ill and are aggravating minor health problems. She also steadily complains about her own health and has spent more time off-work for health reasons than anybody else in the department last year (no chronic disease, repeated instances of common cold or, at worst, influenza).
Needless to say, I don’t trust similar gender-related memes.
How could you measure health in absolute terms anyway? Where exactly do you set the cutoff between healthy and non-healthy? Does it vary relative to current medical technology? Does your income or socio-cultural group matter, or do you average this over everyone? Why average over the US? Why not over the world, or in developed countries, or in particular states?