Healthcare: Macao has the answer - but what is it?

In reading the news on Instapundit that life expectancy in the US has risen to nearly 78 years [Dude, where’s my healthcare crisis?-ed. Never mind.]… I got to wondering where in the world is the longest life expectancy. Japan? Switzerland? Lo and behold, it’s Macao, where the average citizen makes it to 84.36 years and the average woman is pushing 90 (well, not quite… 87.47). Whoa… will they ever have a Social Security problem.

But here’s the big question – why Macao? Well, we do know their number one industry – gambling (and gambling related tourism):

Starting in 1962, the gambling industry had been operated under a government-issued monopoly license by Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. The monopoly ended in 2002, and several casino owners from Las Vegas attempted to enter the market. With the opening of the Sands Macau, the largest casino in the world as measured by total number of table games,[56] in 2004 and Wynn Macau in 2006,[57] gambling revenues from Macau’s casinos were for the first time greater than those of Las Vegas Strip (each about $6 billion),[58][59] making Macau the highest-volume gambling centre in the world.[60] In 2007, Venetian Macau, at the time the second (now third) largest building in the world, opened its doors to the public, followed by MGM Grand Macau. Numerous other hotel casinos, including Galaxy Cotai Megaresort and Ponte 16, are also to be opened in the near future.

Now… as we all know… where there’s gambling there’s tons of drinkin’ and smokin’. So there you have it. Everything is on its head. The solution to longevity is not what you think it is. [More casinos?-ed.] Think how much money this could save us on healthcare.