Life expectancy is because of booze and has little to do with health care (which is free and bad).
The 1998 collapse was a totally different kettle of fish with different causes and a different structure, accompanied as it was by a massive devaluation or default, neither of which is likely to happen now..
I'm not holding up the Russian econ as a model. It's designed for stabilizing the economy post-1998 and is probably not applicable to many other countries.
--- On Tue, 11/25/08, B. <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Average lifespan of Russians is something like 66 despite,
> technically, the presence of universal health care. Not a
> good country to hold up as a model (nowadays) when you want
> to convince others universal health care has great outcomes
> in the longevity area (as it does in Japan, Iceland, Taiwan,
> Spain, etc.)
>
> -B.
>