<P> The U.S. stands 50th in the world with a life expectancy of 78.49 . The CIA World Factbook ranked the United States 174th worst (out of 222)--meaning 48th best--in the world for infant mortality rate (5.98 / 1,000 live births). </P> <P> A study found that between 1997 and 2003, preventable deaths declined more slowly in the United States than in 18 other industrialized nations . A 2008 study found that 101,000 people a year die in the U.S. that would not if the health care system were as effective as that of France, Japan, or Australia . </P> <P> The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that the U.S. ranked poorly in terms of years of potential life lost (YPLL), a statistical measure of years of life lost under the age of 70 that were amenable to being saved by health care . Among OECD nations for which data are available, the United States ranked third last for the health care of women (after Mexico and Hungary) and fifth last for men (Slovakia and Poland also ranked worse). </P> <P> Recent studies find growing gaps in life expectancy based on income and geography . In 2008, a government - sponsored study found that life expectancy declined from 1983 to 1999 for women in 180 counties, and for men in 11 counties, with most of the life expectancy declines occurring in the Deep South, Appalachia, along the Mississippi River, in the Southern Plains and in Texas . The difference is as high as three years for men, six years for women . The gap is growing between rich and poor and by educational level, but narrowing between men and women and by race . Another study found that the mortality gap between the well - educated and the poorly educated widened significantly between 1993 and 2001 for adults ages 25 through 64; the authors speculated that risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high blood pressure may lie behind these disparities . In 2011 the U.S. National Research Council forecasted that deaths attributed to smoking, on the decline in the US, will drop dramatically, improving life expectancy; it also suggested that one - fifth to one - third of the life expectancy difference can be attributed to obesity which is the worst in the world and has been increasing . In an analysis of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer diagnosed during 1990--1994 in 31 countries, the U.S. had the highest five - year relative survival rate for breast cancer and prostate cancer, although survival was systematically and substantially lower in black U.S. men and women . </P>

Which of the following is true of health care in the united states of america