Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Friday, December 29, 2017

Why Americans die younger than those in other rich nations

Life expectancy in the US fell again for the second year in a row in 2016, meaning Americans' lives are about three years shorter than those of people in 34 similarly wealthy countries, according to the latest data.

Not so long ago, the reverse was true: Americans lived to be 73.9 in 1979, while people in the other countries in world's highest wealth bracket, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), lived to be 72.3 on average.

The flip, recent research suggests, can be traced to the trajectories of changes to healthcare policies in these rich nations.

As other countries expand their social welfare programs to create more equal access, the US offers fewer benefits than any other economically-similar nation and the income inequality gap continues to grow.

More

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because BLM of course!

ha

Anonymous said...

I think a good part of it is lifestyle and a lack of affordable healthcare. Where you live also determines quality of life.

Anonymous said...

and Americans tend to be gossipy and worrisome of all these things beyond their control. What they are not getting and hating on who they think is getting it. Worried about being disrespected and all butt hurt about what people think of them. All worked up about this that and the other. Healthy sane cultures stay at home cook at home watch very little tv get out and walk. We use to be that way. I am not sure what created this modern insanity.

Anonymous said...

The life expectancy in the u.S. is going down because of the surge in illegals entering the country that are malnourished and sick when they get here.

Anonymous said...

Heroin deaths

Anonymous said...

Take Chicago,Baltimore and Salisbury out of the picture and the life expectancy would go way up.

Anonymous said...


Inner city murders typically kill very young males, and across the country there are quite a few. When they die at 18 instead of 78 it starts to bend the average age of death down.

Same for the drug related deaths that have been on a sharp rise, although not strictly an inner city or minority group.

Add the two subsets and you end up with a lot of premature deaths of the young. Perhaps enough to make a statistical impact.