North America is a fairly recent settled continent, made up of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. It was built by an amalgamation of wealth, ideas, culture, and practices. North America is highly advanced intellectually, technologically, and traditionally. This advantageous character of North American nations has caused a high average life expectancy of 75 years for males and 80 years for females. This leads to the conclusion that North America has cultivated a comparatively healthy society. As North America contains several core nations, the growing economies in those nations are able to maintain and develop medical institutions. This subsequently provides more access to health care for American citizens but health care is not universal. North America is known for being a leading nation in regards to industrialization and modernization, but the United States lacks federal laws regarding health care as a basic human right. This lag of health care security causes subsequent issues with pharmaceutical competition, lack of care for the elderly, and little attention to alternative medicine. Health care and education are plentiful at a price and illness still persists for many reasons. A main reason is that a lower- and middle-class population still exists in plentiful numbers, maintaining a group that is highly vulnerable to physical ailment.