Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

by David A. Sinclair

As the Australian example proves, when everyone is living longer and healthier, everyone does better. So why isn’t this a topic of discussion in the United States? Why aren’t people charging Capitol Hill with protest signs and the proverbial pitchforks, demanding more investment, universal access to medicines, and the healthiest lifespan on the planet? As other countries enjoy increasingly longer, healthier lives, perhaps Americans will wake up and smell the disparity. But I suspect they won’t. Though the World Health Organization ranks the United States at number 37, below Dominica, Morocco, and Costa Rica and one up from Slovenia,22 it’s still common to hear US politicians say, without any justification, that the United States has the best health care system in the world, and millions of people believe it.