Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A comprehensive review of U.S. social policies evaluated for their health outcomes found suggestive evidence that early life, income, and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health. Scientists have long known that "social" risk factors, like poverty, are correlated with health. However, until this study, there was little research carried out to understand whether it was actually possible to improve population health by addressing these risk factors with social policies. The findings are published in The Milbank Quarterly, a multidisciplinary journal of population health and health policy published by the Milbank Memorial Fund.
"Since the 1960s, a large number of social policies that have been experimentally evaluated include health outcomes, but these were mostly overlooked. By tracking down these studies, we found a unique opportunity to inform evidence-based policymaking. It was sitting right there in front of us this whole time," said Peter Muennig, MD, a professor of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. "Our goal was to conduct a comprehensive review of experimental studies of social and economic interventions that were not explicitly designed for the purpose of improving the health of participants. Health outcomes were often added as an afterthought and were overlooked." He added, "This is remarkable given the magnitude of expenditures in the nonmedical determinants of health in the United States and the weak evidence base supporting these investments."
The systematic review of all known randomized social experiments in the United States that involved health outcomes included 5,876 papers, reports, and data sources, ultimately encompassing 60 papers, reports, or datasets from 38 randomized social experiments. These experiments spanned the period 1962-2018 and featured a range of policies, analytic approaches, and target groups and measured a wide variety of health outcomes.
The final analysis was based on a sample of 450 unique health estimates across the 38 interventions. Of these, 77% were not able to reliably detect health outcomes because the sample was too small. Among those from which reliable estimates could be obtained, 49% demonstrated a significant health improvement, 44% had no effect on health, and 7% were associated with significant worsening of health. The most commonly reported outcome was mental health.
[...] "Our study is exciting because it shows for the first time that it is possible for the government to improve health by making investments outside of the health system. The strong investments made by peer nations in welfare may explain why they have left the United States in the dust with respect to health and longevity. Still, policymakers need to be careful about how they make these investments, because they also have the potential to do harm."
More information: Emilie Courtin et al. Can Social Policies Improve Health? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 38 Randomized Trials, The Milbank Quarterly (2020). DOI: 10.1111/1468-0009.12451
Journal information: Milbank Quarterly
(Score: 5, Insightful) by danaris on Friday March 20 2020, @01:13PM (6 children)
Wait, so...treating people like human beings with valid needs, both physiological and psychological, rather than robots who have to compete to prove Who Is The Best (and thus worthy to survive) ends up with healthier people?!?!
Color me stunned.
Dan Aris
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 20 2020, @01:44PM (4 children)
Oh no, life must be kept challenging! Otherwise people become slack and soft. And that's unhealthy.
If life is too easy, soon the entire nation devolves into a bunch of whiny crybabies and special snowflakes. The percentage of moochers will be much more than 47%. These degenerates might even elect leaders that reflect this decadence.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Friday March 20 2020, @01:54PM (1 child)
kinda obvious like so much today. We had centuries of misery replaced by super tech, if you can afford it.
100 years ago the richest on the planet didn't have what the millenials have in their pockets.
Life is short and very finite - allowing a human time to look after themselves and family without working 80 hours/week is common sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 20 2020, @07:39PM
> 100 years ago the richest on the planet didn't have what the millenials have in their pockets.
Here is what the rich today value :
Handcrafted clothing
Fresh cooked meals
Live entertainment
Servants
Personal transport in luxury
Holy shit, same as ancient times
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 20 2020, @02:39PM
"might" ?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 20 2020, @05:25PM
So what we need is a more sharply progressive tax structure. We don't want the 0.1% getting all soft and snowflakey! No more trust funds, they cause affluenza.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DannyB on Friday March 20 2020, @02:36PM
Everyone collectively helping the poorest would be . . . OMG . . . evil socialism!
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Friday March 20 2020, @01:55PM (5 children)
> early life, income, and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health.
yep, of the insurance company
the most tech advanced country in the world has people afraid to break their ankle because the system allows insurance companies to agree on a different price for reimbursement than the one the general public pays. This is bipartisan high treason.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Touché) by PiMuNu on Friday March 20 2020, @02:19PM (1 child)
> most tech advanced country
By what measure? To pick a few random ones...
US loses here (broadband speed, basic estimator of tech):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds [wikipedia.org]
and here (publications in general):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_scientific_and_technical_journal_articles [wikipedia.org]
US wins here (publication in Nature, a high impact UK journal):
https://www.natureindex.com/country-outputs/generate/All/global/All/score [natureindex.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday March 20 2020, @06:01PM
As the fairly famous clip from the Newsroom carefully documents, there is absolutely zero evidence that the USA is the greatest country in the world at anything other than (a) bombing and drone strikes mostly hitting civilians, (b) locking people up, and (c) taxing ordinary people to line the pockets of a few people who are already ridiculously rich.
And regarding your scientific publication numbers: What percentage of those scientists were American citizens versus immigrants who could very easily leave for another nation's universities? And how important are those articles?
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 20 2020, @06:00PM (1 child)
That's just the beginning. The billing and price uncertainty is beyond insane. If getting an oil change was billed like health care, they wouldn't tell you the price up front at all. Even after the oil change, they couldn't tell you how much they were going to bill or when to expect it. Over the next year or so you would receive separate bills for tool rental, a use fee from the building owner, a bill for the oil used, a bill for the disposal of the old oil, a bill from the guy that changed the oil, a bill from the guy that walked by and "helpfully" called out, "righty tighty, lefty loosey", a bill from the guy that wiped off the drain plug after the oil changer guy dropped it in the kitty litter on the floor. The bills are each from some automotive billing company you've never heard of, and don't clearly identify when or where the service was performed, so you can't even tell if it's legit. Years later, you may get a bill from the guy that wiped up the oil spill on the floor from when the oil changer guy bumped into the catch pan. At no point will you be able to get anyone to certify that you have received the last bill for the service.
Finally, if they strip the threads *possibly because the "righty-tighty" guy didn't call out soon enough), they'll bill you at full price for replacing the oil pan (but it'll be 6 or 7 separate bills of course).
Now add in that the itemized statements from the auto maintenance insurance company all used different descriptions so you can't even be sure all of the bills were submitted to insurance and either rejected (for "reasons") or only partially paid (for other "reasons") or if someone messed up the paperwork and billed you the full amount.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 21 2020, @02:04PM
Indeed. Where else do you ignore the first bill because the billing hasn't settled down yet?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday March 21 2020, @09:48AM
No we don't. I barely recognise the (snipped) rest of your sentence, where were you thinking of? Sounds like the USA to me, but given the first eight words in the sentence, it can't be.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 20 2020, @05:11PM
Let the govt pay for everything.
I certainly don't need the stress of a job.