As the saying has it, "there are lies, there are damned lies and then there are statistics." Well ok, maybe it is not the statistics that lie but the interpreters of those statistics. And if the interpreters don't actually lie about the statistics oftentimes they just don't understand them or don't place them in context. For instance, in the ongoing debate about health care in the U.S., critics have claimed the lack of government health insurance is responsible for the relatively low life expectancy of citizens in this country compared with other industrialized countries. Not so according to demographer Dr. Samuel H. Preston as reported by John Tierney in the NY Times. Placing the statistics in context Preston concludes there isno evidence that America's health care system is to blame for the longevity gap between it and other industrialized countries. In fact, he concludes, the American system in many ways provides superior treatment even when uninsured Americans are...(Read Full Post)