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The Washington Post

American lives are shorter on average than those in other wealthy nations – and the gap is growing ever wider, according to the latest data released by the US’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
As recently as 1979, the typical American could expect to live roughly 1.5 years longer than the average resident of one of the other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – a group of 35 wealthy, predominately Western nations.
The typical American baby born in 1979 could expect to live about 73.9 years, while the typical baby born in one of the other 34 OECD countries would live roughly to age 72.3.
But by 2015 that gap had flipped. The average American born that year could expect to live a little less than 79 years, while the typical baby born in an OECD country had an expected lifespan of nearly 81 years.
Opioid epidemic lowers US life expectancy for second year in a row
In 2016, US life expectancy dropped for the second year in a row, a statistical event that has not happened since the early 1960s. Numbers for the remaining OECD countries are not yet available, but if prior trends continue, the gap between the United States and the rest of the wealthy world is likely to grow even larger.
The United States remains one of the wealthiest countries in the world. So what happened?

We can start with the health care system, which is, frankly, something of a mess.
The US spends thousands of dollars more per capita on health care than any other country in the world, but in return its citizens live shorter lives than those in most other rich nations.
While the care itself is generally quite good, access to it remains spotty. The United States is the only OECD country without some sort of universal health care coverage, and as a result millions of Americans currently have no form of health insurance.
The recent repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate will cause that number to swell by millions more in the coming decade.
Violence is also taking a toll on Americans’ life expectancy. While the murder rate has been steadily falling since the early 1990s, Americans are still more likely to be murdered than people in nearly any other rich nations.
A 2016 study found that “US homicide rates were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher.” Easy access to guns is the big factor there.
The United States also stands out for the stinginess of its social safety net relative to other rich countries.

A 2014 review noted that plenty of individual factors lurk behind Americans’ short lifespans compared to their foreign cousins – among them tobacco use, obesity, violence and disease.
But the lion’s share of the difference in lifespan was due to “variations in non-medical determinants of health, some of which result from dramatic differences in public policies across the US and other OECD countries.”
Among other things, that study noted that:
– American children start their schooling later in childhood than kids in other rich countries.
– The United States spends far less public money on early childhood education and care than nearly any other OECD country.
– The United States is the only high-income country in the world that does not mandate paid maternity leave.
– Ditto for sick leave and holiday time.
– US unemployment benefits are less generous than in most other OECD countries.
– Housing help in the US is minimal, relative to other wealthy nations.
– Because the American tax code is more generous to the wealthy than tax systems in other rich countries, US income inequality is among the highest in the OECD.

A study published in December of last year found that if these and other social welfare factors were brought up to the OECD average, it would add nearly four years to the collective life expectancy of the American population.
“The US mortality disadvantage is, in part, a welfare state disadvantage,” the authors concluded.
Americans are dying younger, in part, because of deliberate policy choices the country has made over the decades: rejecting single-payer health care. Cutting taxes for the rich. Shunning universal basic income. Abandoning universal child care.
Those choices increasingly set the country apart from the rest of the wealthy world.


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Wellness

Americans are dying younger than people in other rich nations

In this October 2, 2017 file photo, investigators load bodies from the scene of a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino in Las Vegas. Easy access to guns has been identified as one reason Americans live, on average, shorter lives than those in other rich countries. Photo: AP

This Dec. 13, 2017 photo, shows the exterior of the board of education headquarters in Cheshire, Conn. Schools in the town have suspended use of the Summit Learning program, a go-at-your-own-pace personalized online learning platform built by a California charter school network with help from Facebook engineers. Parents who organized against it said there was no need to change what's worked in a town with a prized reputation for good schools. Superintendent Jeffrey Solan said he accepted the change was too much for some, and announced the program would be suspended. (AP Photo/Michael Melia)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2017, file photo, shooting instructor Frankie McRae demonstrates the grip on an AR-15 rifle fitted with a bump stock at his 37 PSR Gun Club in Bunnlevel, N.C. Citing the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, South Carolina's capital city has approved a ban on the use of the "bump stock" devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to mimic fully automatic guns. The measure was approved by Columbia City Council on Tuesday night, Dec. 19. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2017, file photo, a memorial displaying 58 crosses by Greg Zanis stands at the "Welcome To Las Vegas Sign" in Las Vegas. Each cross has the name of a victim killed during the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Oct. 1. A coroner in Las Vegas says all 58 victims in the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip died of gunshot wounds. Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg told The Associated Press on Thursday, Dec. 21, that all the cases were ruled homicides. (Mikayla Whitmore/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File)