Extending lifespans and expanding health has been an on-going process of history.
Pneumonia and tuberculosis don't kill the young so often as they did. (because of rise of vaccines and testing. ) Major advances in the post-WW II period—up to and through transplants and ever-advancing bypass surgeries—made it more difficult to die because your heart was weak or flawed.
The key assumption in all of the above is access to and use of the available advances. In a system that de facto rations by ability to pay, there is a greater likelihood that the rich will live longer—or, more accurately, that the poor will die unnecessarily sooner.
The difference in life expectancy across socioeconomic groups is significantly larger now than in 1980 or 1990 ( A similar trend is evident in Great Britain.) In 1980, life expectancy at birth was 2.8 years more for the highest socioeconomic group than for the lowest. By 2000, that gap had risen to 4.5 years. In 1980, the difference in life expectancy at age 65 between the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups was 0.3 years. By 2000, the difference had grown to 1.6 years.
As in the United States, where the low-income and low-education groups have seen little gain in life expectancy, people in unskilled manual occupations in Great Britain have also experienced little gain in recent years.
See here http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/91xx/doc9104/LifeExpectancy_Brief.1.1.shtml
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