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from the If-you-can't-afford-the-medical-care dept.
A new study found that more than one million US deaths per year—including many young and working-age adults—could be avoided if the US had mortality rates similar to its peer nations:
In 2021, 1.1 million deaths would have been averted in the United States if the US had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations, according to a new study led by a School of Public Health researcher.
Published in the journal PNAS Nexus, the study refers to these excess deaths as "Missing Americans," because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if the US mortality rates were equal to its peer countries.
Comparing age-specific death rates in the U.S. and 21 other wealthy nations from 1933 through 2021, the authors find that current death rates in the US are much higher than other wealthy nations, and the number of excess U.S. deaths has never been larger.
"The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented in modern times," says study lead and corresponding author Jacob Bor, associate professor of global health and epidemiology.
Nearly 50 percent of all Missing Americans died before age 65 in 2020 and 2021. According to Bor, the level of excess mortality among working age adults is particularly stark. "Think of people you know who have passed away before reaching age 65. Statistically, half of them would still be alive if the US had the mortality rates of our peers. The US is experiencing a crisis of early death that is unique among wealthy nations."
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a sharp spike in mortality in the US—more so than in other countries—but the new findings show that the number of excess US deaths has been accelerating over the last four decades. Bor and colleagues analyzed trends in US deaths from 1933 to 2021, including the impact of COVID-19, and then compared these trends with age-specific mortality rates in Canada, Japan, Australia, and 18 European nations.
The US had lower mortality rates than peer countries during World War II and its aftermath. During the 1960's and 1970's, the US had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations, but the number of Missing Americans began to increase year by year starting in the 1980's, reaching 622,534 annual excess U.S. deaths by 2019. Deaths then spiked to 1,009,467 in 2020 and 1,090,103 in 2021 during the pandemic. From 1980 to 2021, there were a total of 13.1 million Missing Americans.
[...] "We waste hundreds of billions each year on health insurers' profits and paperwork, while tens of millions can't afford medical care, healthy food, or a decent place to live," says study senior author Steffie Woolhandler, Distinguished Professor at the School of Urban Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York. "Americans die younger than their counterparts elsewhere because when corporate profits conflict with health, our politicians side with the corporations."
[...] "The US was already experiencing more than 600,000 Missing Americans annually before the pandemic began, and that number was increasing each year. There have been no significant policy changes since then to change this trajectory," he says.
"While COVID-19 brought new attention to public health, the backlash unleashed during the pandemic has undermined trust in government and support for expansive policies to improve population health," said Bor. "This could be the most harmful long-term impact of the pandemic, because expansion of public policy to support health is exactly how our peer countries have attained higher life expectancy and better health outcomes."
Journal Reference:
Jacob Bor, Andrew C Stokes, Julia Raifman, et al., Missing Americans: Early death in the United States—1933–2021, PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 6, June 2023, pgad173, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad173
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 17 2023, @12:26PM (6 children)
Translation: "Big Pharma believes there is an untapped profit pool for anti-depression drugs."
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Touché) by PiMuNu on Friday November 17 2023, @12:46PM
> The United States has no peers
> Big Pharma believes there is an untapped profit pool for anti-depression drugs
Correct.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:24PM (4 children)
Because "It's not GUNZ, it's CRAZY PEOPLE!"
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 18 2023, @07:12PM (3 children)
Well, yes, of course. You are old enough to remember when every state had one or more crazy houses, and many counties ran their own. A county without a nuthouse worked in cooperation with other counties, and had access to a regional facility.
Being old enough to remember that, you also remember when it was exposed that many of those nuthouses were reminiscent of Nazi medical experiments - people held against their will, and subjected to all manner of "treatments", including electroshock among others. Staff was abusive, people actually died if/when they got on the wrong side of staff, or at least certain members of staff.
So, because some, or many, facilities were shown to be abusive - government just shut them all down. Threw the baby right out with the bath water. All the crazies were cut loose, to wander the streets, or whatever.
And, that's where we are today. The crazies wander the streets, and we can't even catalog them, for fear that documenting a crazy might violate his civil rights.
So, yes. Get the crazies under control, and you eliminate a big part of the so-called "gun problem". At the very least, when someone is judged to be incompetent, their name should be submitted to NCIS, so that they can't legally purchase a firearm. That's the very least that should be done. We can, and should do a lot more, but let us do that very least for starters.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 22 2023, @12:34AM (2 children)
Yes, many homeless are mentally ill. Most of them are mentally ill because of their service to their country and were simply forgotten by an ungrateful nation and its uncaring government.
Others were ensnared by an injury, followed by the Sackler's spider web, the opioids. One man I met had been a very successful man who owned three apartment houses before becoming addicted to prescription poison after an injury. He became a homeless thief, the last I knew he was on his way to prison for repeated retail theft.
One drinking buddy of mine was a drunk who often wore a T-shirt that said "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings." His drinking caused him to lose a succession of jobs and he wound up in the street before AA found him and sobered him up.
But there are homeless people with full time jobs. The mentally ill are a small minority, but thinking they're all just crazy makes it easier to live with yourself, I guess. It just makes me sick.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 22 2023, @06:02AM (1 child)
Ohhh-kay. The issue of our discussion is not homeless people, per se. I'm not dismissing them, each of their stories is tragic. But, homelessness is not the subject of our discussion. The subject is governmental infringement on all citizen's constitutionally guaranteed rights, based on the actions of a few crazy people who misuse and abuse centuries old technology - that is, firearms.
Almost by definition, mass shooters are crazy. In point of fact, many mass shooters have been treated for mental illnesses. My whole point was, government has few provisions in place to deal with those crazy people meaningfully. Worse, government fails to act far too often when there are provisions in place. I'll repeat that we threw the babies out with the bathwater when it was brought to the public's attention that some or many crazy houses were cesspools of torture and abuse. (Parenthetically - if nuthouses attracted psycho abusive employees, did most of those psycho abusive employees switch over to law enforcement when the nuthouses were closed down?)
It is irrational to deprive all citizens of a right, or even a privilege, based on the fact that a small number of insane, deranged, or mentally unbalanced people abuse that right or privilege.
Let's go back to junior high school together for a moment, shall we? There is a student, let's call him Freaky Fred, who routinely smears his feces on the bathroom stall. Authorities say we can't kick him out of school, can't send him to jail, can't do much of anything with him. All that can be done is to give him detention, and that doesn't stop his conduct. The solution? Oh - we'll just close the boy's rooms. If no one can use the restroom, Freaky Fred won't be able to smear feces for the janitorial staff to clean up anymore. When Fred sneaks into the girl's restroom, and smears his feces there, then we just close the girl's restrooms as well. I ask you, is that a rational solution?
And, yes, I chose that scenario, because infringing on constitutionally guaranteed rights has turned into a shitshow, and it can only get worse.
This nation needs to address the real, underlying issue, and stop trying to put band-aids on arterial hemorrhages. Or, more accurately, stop applying makeup to arterial hemorrhages.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday November 26 2023, @06:42PM
The subject is governmental infringement on all citizen's constitutionally guaranteed rights, based on the actions of a few crazy people who misuse and abuse centuries old technology
The subject is why Americans die so young. You pinpoint only one of those problems. The largest problem is our lack of a real health care system, leaving it up it the greedy to cure our sick and heal their injuries.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron