The problem of the health policy priorities choice to increase life expectancy inRussia is discussed. It is shown that the existing practice of choice of priorities does not use the whole arsenal of scientific analytical instruments developed in demography. A practice is based on the most common rough indicators having low analytical capacity, and therefore proceeds from the incorrect ideas concerning the real situation in thefield of mortality in Russia. This reduces the effectiveness of efforts to increase life expectancy in Russia and put obstacles in the way of overcoming its growing backlog by this index from most developed countries.

More thorough analytical methods based on the analysis of the functions of life tables by cause of death are proposed. The importance of considering the two-dimen­sional structure of life expectancy, which reflects both the probabilities of dying from a particular cause of death, and age distribution of deaths from each cause is emphasized. This analytical approach allows to estimate the contribution of various causes of death to the formation of the mortality situation and trends and to justify the choice of priority long-run objectives of the struggle for reducing mortality.