Life Expectancy Lags Across the US

Life expectancy in the US is not keeping up with the rest of the world. In some parts of the country, both men and women die younger than their counterparts in Syria, Panama and Vietnam. After years of progress, the drop was the biggest since the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, though there are major differences from region to region. That's according to research by the University of Washington, reported in the journal Population Health Metrics. Noam Levey reports on health policy for the Los Angeles Times.