The current state of health in this country is truly depressing. I would say that the state of healthcare is depressing, but after doing our reading I am much more conscious of the fact that healthcare is actually not the major contributing factor to discrepancies in health status among Americans. Healthcare, it turns out, is doing okay. As a result of large-scale government investment in healthcare, advances in technology and medicines allow our doctors to keep 80-year-olds alive for longer than doctors in other developed countries. It is basic preventative healthcare, which is inextricably linked to SES, that really fails the majority of our citizens. I knew previously that SES and income were determining factors for health status, but had not grasped the staggering extent of their influence; The excerpt from Professor Barr's writing, complete with its various charts and graphs, allowed me to do so.