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dennismike123 t1_j5xfhyi wrote

This is a misleading headline in that it represents the averaging of two separate areas of a measured pool of participants. If you would divide America into two groups, the richest 30 percent and the remaining 70 percent which would be the poorest, you find that for whatever reason, the lower 70 percent has been watching their life expectancy drop for the past 5 years while the richest 30 percent has seen their life expectancy increase and stay up with the western European averages as well. Because there are so many more of the "getting worse here boss" people, the OVERALL average shows a decline for the past two years. If you are in the top 30 percent or have money or great insurance, you don't have to worry about headlines that include the lower 70 percent, you will do all right. If you are in the lower 70 percent, sorry to tell you that your life expectancy has actually gone down more than what they reported, because they included the other 30 percent in the averaging. Can we get something besides healthcare only for the wealthy and their approved "associates"?

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[deleted] t1_j5ygt0g wrote

It's the same bifurcation in education, where Americans that attend the top 20% of high schools and colleges are easily competitive with 'best in the world' systems but then there's everyone else.

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sf_sf_sf t1_j5zaytp wrote

It would be interesting to see the healthy results for America's wealthiest (10/20/30%) and compare it to the average European.

Question; Do you have to be super rich in America just to get the Average health results for Europe?

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nimama3233 t1_j5zd92t wrote

You certainly don’t have to be super rich, just stable.

A salary a bit above the median and a job with consistent insurance means you’ll have equal opportunity for healthcare relative to Western Europe.

I also don’t think this decrease in life expectancy is necessarily entirely due to healthcare; overdoses have massively gone up and so have suicides. This yet again effects poor people more than those that are well off and comfortable.

Our biggest issue is certainly the wealth gap. There’s a LOT of people in relative poverty and the minimum guarantees for quality of life provided by the government is absolutely not on par with Western Europe.

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