Other experts have found just the opposite - that smoking and obesity do not fully explain the U.S. lag. Last October, a team at Columbia University in New York determined that the lack of a coherent healthcare system in the United States was to blame.

But the National Research Council experts rejected this possibility.

“The health care system in the United States differs from those in other high-income countries in a number of ways that conceivably could lead to differences in life expectancy,” they wrote.

“However, this is a smaller factor above age 65 than at younger ages because of Medicare entitlements. For the main causes of death at older ages - cancer and cardiovascular disease - available indicators do not suggest that the U.S. health care system is failing to prevent deaths that would elsewhere be averted,” they added.

“In fact, cancer detection and survival appear to be better in the United States than in most other high-income countries. Survival rates following a heart attack also are favorable in the United States.”

The National Research Council, one of the National Academies of Sciences, is an independent organization that advises the federal government and other institutions on scientific matters.

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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON