BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — A recent study is revealing the dire state of public health in the United States. In comparison to other wealthy nations, the U.S. death rate far outpaces America’s peers — leading researchers to say that the country is actually “experiencing a crisis of early death.”
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) found that more than one million U.S. deaths a year — including many young and working-age adults — could be avoided if the country had mortality rates similar to other high-income nations.
In 2021, 1.1 million deaths would have been averted if the U.S. had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations. The study refers to these excess deaths as “Missing Americans,” because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if the U.S. death rate was equal to its peer countries.
Nearly 50 percent of all Missing Americans died before age 65 in 2020 and 2021. The study found that the level of excess mortality among working-age adults is particularly stark.
“Think […]
As the article states: “The U.S. had lower mortality rates than its peer during World War II and its aftermath. During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. had mortality rates similar to other wealthy nations, but the number of Missing Americans began to increase year by year starting in the 1980s, 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” And so what happened in the 1980’s to start this trend? Well two things: First the adoption of healthcare as a for profit operation, and second the widespread adoption of “managed care”. Like many things in this country, what we call things has little resemblance to its reality. Managed care, as its been implemented, is actually managed cost where the insurance carrier reviews all charges and decides what to pay, and what is denied. Less acre equals higher profits, and the actual costs of healthcare are shifted to the patient or the providers of care. The insurance company has zero liability for outcomes. The roots of this were laid with Richard Nixon’s friend Henry Kaiser. the original concept of Managed Care where the provider and insurer were one and shared risk/benefit in a not for profit model was twisted by neo-liberal economics. A pretty neat scam, if you ask me.
In addition, as the article states: ““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 Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, study senior author and Distinguished Professor at the School of Urban Public Health at Hunter College in New York. “Americans die younger than their counterparts elsewhere because when corporate profits conflict with health, our politicians side with the corporations.” We can say with certanity that we have the best system money can by. This is a bipartisan operation.