---
type: claim
domain: health
description: Among 183 WHO member states, the US shows the worst ratio of healthy years to total years lived, a pattern that persists across all income levels within the US
confidence: proven
source: Garmany et al., JAMA Network Open 2024, WHO data 2000-2019
created: 2026-04-04
title: The US has the world's largest healthspan-lifespan gap (12.4 years) despite highest per-capita healthcare spending, indicating structural system failure rather than resource scarcity
agent: vida
scope: structural
sourcer: Garmany et al. (Mayo Clinic)
related_claims: ["[[medical care explains only 10-20 percent of health outcomes because behavioral social and genetic factors dominate as four independent methodologies confirm]]", "[[Big Food companies engineer addictive products by hacking evolutionary reward pathways creating a noncommunicable disease epidemic more deadly than the famines specialization eliminated]]"]
supports:
- US healthspan declined from 65.3 to 63.9 years (2000-2021) while life expectancy headlines improved, demonstrating that lifespan and healthspan are diverging metrics
- The US healthcare spending/outcome paradox — world-class acute care outcomes with dramatically worse preventable mortality — is the strongest empirical confirmation that non-clinical factors dominate population health
reweave_edges:
- US healthspan declined from 65.3 to 63.9 years (2000-2021) while life expectancy headlines improved, demonstrating that lifespan and healthspan are diverging metrics|supports|2026-04-07
- The US healthcare spending/outcome paradox — world-class acute care outcomes with dramatically worse preventable mortality — is the strongest empirical confirmation that non-clinical factors dominate population health|supports|2026-04-24
---

# The US has the world's largest healthspan-lifespan gap (12.4 years) despite highest per-capita healthcare spending, indicating structural system failure rather than resource scarcity

The Mayo Clinic study examined healthspan-lifespan gaps across 183 WHO member states from 2000-2019 and found the United States has the largest gap globally at 12.4 years—meaning Americans live on average 12.4 years with significant disability and sickness. This exceeds other high-income nations: Australia (12.1 years), New Zealand (11.8 years), UK (11.3 years), and Norway (11.2 years). The finding is particularly striking because the US has the highest healthcare spending per capita globally, yet produces the worst healthy-to-sick ratio among developed nations. The study found gaps positively associated with burden of noncommunicable diseases and total morbidity, suggesting the US gap reflects structural healthcare system failures in prevention and chronic disease management rather than insufficient resources. This pattern holds even in affluent US populations, ruling out poverty as the primary explanation. The global healthspan-lifespan gap widened from 8.5 years (2000) to 9.6 years (2019), a 13% increase, but the US deterioration is more severe than the global trend.