The life span differences among the races has a lot to do with infant mortality. Once you get beyond that, the differences start to disappear. At birth, black females outlive white males. Table 105. Life Expectancy by Sex, Age, and Race: 2008
Excellent point. I'm beginning to think that we are being schizoid in this country to give free, first class, virtually unlimited health care to seniors and give nothing to young people, even where it would save lots of babies and lots of money.
First, as to seniors, why should Medicare every possible treatment, virtually regardless of cost? We don't give Social Security recipients the same income as a millionaire—we give them enough to get by. I think we should take the same approach with Medicare. Cover the basics with basic treatment. You want a treatment that costs $10,000 a month for a few years, get your own insurance or pay for it yourself.
Then, with regard to young people, it is amazing that the US ranks below Cuba in infant mortality. I suspect it comes down to lack of access to prenatal care. Let me digress and tell a story.
When I had my own business, living in Austin, Texas, I had a young couple who came to my office. We got to talking and it turned out that the lady was pregnant. It was their first child, and I asked them if they had been to get some doctor's advice on what they should be doing. They said they wanted to, but couldn't afford it. They were nice people and I told them I wanted to help them out. I said I would pay for a doctor's appointment so they could get the required counseling. They were very appreciative. But when I called, every doctor in town (about 350,000 population) who did prenatal care refused to see them unless they signed a contract to have that doctor deliver the baby, and put down a minimum $1000 deposit. This effectively shut poor people out of getting prenatal care. Of course, when the baby is delivered and has problems, they go to the local hospitals who then have to deliver the often very expensive treatment to save the child's life.
So I think we should provide government clinics who dispense free basic prenatal care—authorize say five visits where the expectant parents can learn what they need to do to have a healthy child, and also to spot problems early on where they have a much better chance of being remedied. Fund this by cutting back on the Cadillac treatment of our seniors on Medicare. Actually, it would take but a minuscule amount of what we spend on seniors to fund this.