Reading the latest Eurostat report on life expectancy, I couldn’t help but thinking “no wonder the Troika wants to hack into a minimum the pensions and cut health care to the absolute necessary.” Together with Irish and Luxembourgians, Greeks rank third among the folks of EU 27 member states when it comes to life expectancy. These three folks could reach the age of 67 if remain healthy. Maltese beat all with 71 years, followed by Swedish expected to reach 70 years of healthy life.
“Among the Member States, the highest number of healthy life years at birth in 2011 was estimated for both women and men in Malta (71 years for women and 70 years for men), Sweden (70 and 71 years), Luxembourg, Greece and Ireland2 (all 67 and 66 years), and the lowest in Slovakia (52 years for both) and Slovenia (54 years for both). In the majority of Member States, there was very little difference in the number of years women and men can expect to live without health limitations. In 2011, the biggest differences were found in Lithuania (5 more healthy life years for women) and in the Netherlands (5 more healthy life years for men).
At the age of 50, both women and men were expected to have more than 20 additional healthy life years in Sweden (26 years for women and 25 for men), Malta (23 years for both), Denmark (22 years for both), Luxembourg, Ireland2 and the United Kingdom (all 22 and 21 years). The lowest additional healthy life years were estimated for women and men in Slovakia (10 years for both).
At the age of 65, healthy life years were highest in Sweden (15 additional years for women and 14 for men) and lowest in Slovakia (3 and 4 years). ” (full report Eurostat)
Eurostat measures the number of years that a person can expect to live in a healthy condition1. At birth, both women and men in the EU27 could expect to live 62 years in a healthy condition in 2011. At the age of 50, they could expect another 18 years living in a healthy condition, while at the age of 65, they could expect to have an additional 9 healthy life years.
PS That is if I am healthy at 50, I could die at 68 of sudden death? No need to pay pension contributions then, as the Troika raised the retirement age to 67 🙂
