According to the Daily Telegraph of November 4, people in the US are twice as likely to contract diabetes and a third more likely to develop cancer than those among similar aged people in England。
But despite this, Americans, aged 65, can expect to live on average around three months longer than their equivalent retirees across the Atlantic。
The discrepancies suggests that while English people have healthier lifestyles than Americans, the latter's health care system is better able to patch them up。
The study, co-authored by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, involved analyzing information from two comparable surveys of people aged 50 and over in the United States and England。
But both sets of pensioners had a similar life expectancy (82 for men, 85 for women) with Americans actually living on average a few months longer。
Mr Smith said that research suggested that "higher-quality medical care in the United States than in England" meant people were less likely to die from chronic illnesses。