It’s not just that life expectancy in Mississippi (71.9) now appears to be a hair shorter than in Bangladesh (72.4). Nor that an infant is some 70 percent more likely to die in the United States than in other wealthy countries.
Nor even that for the first time in probably a century, the likelihood that an American child will live to the age of 20 has dropped.
All that is tragic and infuriating, but to me the most heart-rending symbol of America’s failure in health care is the avoidable amputations that result from poorly managed diabetes.
A medical setting cannot hide the violence of a saw cutting through a leg or muffle the grating noise it makes as it hacks through the tibia or disguise the distinctive charred odor of cauterized blood vessels. That noise of a saw on bone is a rebuke to an American health care system that, as Walter Cronkite reportedly observed, is neither healthy, caring nor […]
As the article states: “Type 2 diabetes, the kind that is linked to diet and inactivity, used to be called adult-onset diabetes but now affects children as well — and it encapsulates American ill health. It reflects the brilliance of soda companies and fast-food companies at marketing their products — in ways that are good for corporate profits but disastrous for American health.” This issue is a result of a systemic choice which started in the 1960’s during the Nixon administration, under Earl Butts: “Get Big, or get out” philosophy of Agriculture. We prioritized quantity over quality. This is a direct result.
Also, in Neo-liberal economics the poor are considered excess labor and there is no systemic push for healthcare for them as it’s always framed as an expense.
The article continues: “Cost is often the argument against expanding access to health care. But it’s hard to understand how just about every other advanced country can afford universal care and the United States can’t.” This is the part which always gives me a chuckle. Nicholas Kristof is smart, and he knows why, but can’t say why. Look at the graph in the article carefully. How many other countries on the list run a world wide empire? None. Therein is the rub. The American people will be unable to enjoy the fruits of their labor as many in the world do because we maintain a worldwide empire and that where our wealth is directed. Because this obvious fact goes unmentioned it is yet another example of bipartisan empire at work.