Comparing health outcomes across countries (from the comments)

I think it has come up repeatedly on MR that comparing international statistics in health outcomes is nearly impossible — definitions of live-birth, infant mortality, maternal mortality, cancer survival, cause of death, etc etc are simply too different between countries. Patterns of driving behavior, military service and violence affect life expectancy independently of health care, as do patterns of immigration.

The US tends to compare quite well on life-expectancy in later life, which is the point at which quality of health care (rather than e.g. traffic accidents) is a key factor in survival.

That is from Marie.  I take this understanding, and most of all its absence, as one of the key markers of whether a person is actually trying to think things through.