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US Life Expectancy Declines For the First Time Since 1993 (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Washington Post: For the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year (Warning: may be paywalled; alternate source) -- a troubling development linked to a panoply of worsening health problems in the United States. Rising fatalities from heart disease and stroke, diabetes, drug overdoses, accidents and other conditions caused the lower life expectancy revealed in a report released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics. In all, death rates rose for eight of the top 10 leading causes of death. The new report raises the possibility that major illnesses may be eroding prospects for an even wider group of Americans. Its findings show increases in "virtually every cause of death. It's all ages," said David Weir, director of the health and retirement study at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Over the past five years, he noted, improvements in death rates were among the smallest of the past four decades. "There's this just across-the-board [phenomenon] of not doing very well in the United States." Overall, life expectancy fell by one-tenth of a year, from 78.9 in 2014 to 78.8 in 2015, according to the latest data. The last time U.S. life expectancy at birth declined was in 1993, when it dropped from 75.6 to 75.4, according to World Bank data. The overall death rate rose 1.2 percent in 2015, its first uptick since 1999. More than 2.7 million people died, about 45 percent of them from heart disease or cancer.
It's sure to drop further once he repeals health care.
This kind of arbitrary date picking cause and effect game also works great with the economy! Try it at home, kids!
"Old man yells at systemd"
Hmmm...
The morbidly predictable long-term effect of the seemingly unstoppable tidal wave of fatassery sweeping the nation, or President Black Man's fault?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...
80 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks from 2004 to 2013. the US defense budget in 2015 was 637 billion dollars. However, The US Health and Human Services budget for 2015 is 1.3 trillion dollars. How is it we as a nation can outspend ourselves as the largest military power in the world, and still be faced with a declining life expectency rate?
Good people go to bed earlier.
...in order to force taxpayer-funded abortions on the American public.
You may think that's an exaggeration, but look how tenaciously Nancy Pelosi insisted on the provision during the debate over Obamacare, forcing Stupak's block of flippers to cave rather than give it up.
Look how fervently the Obama Administration insisted that the Little Sister of the Poor must pay for abortifacients rather than come to an accommodation as required by the law.
ObamaCare was meant to fail as a means of forcing the full socialization of American medicine, true. But it was also designed as an instrument of the culture war, and one Democrats were determined to defend no matter how many legislators lost their seats over it.
And as for the current state of ObamaCare, take a look here.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Considering one of the major contributers is "unintentional injury deaths, such as overdoses and car accidents, increased by 6.7 percent" much of the blame likely sits on the pain pill problem. Cancer deaths actually went down, so health care is working for that disease. Alzheimers deaths rose a lot... but they say this is due to the medical establishment just recategorizing that as a cause of death... woner what those were usually listed under.
The ars article has some useful charts, if, unlike 3 out of 5 of trump supporters, you know how to read them.
Someone had to do it.
High
Fructose
Corn
Syrup
Follow the money.....
Socializing medicine has been a disaster. It is killing people. Under Obama care faceless bureaucrats will decide who lives and who lives and who dies. All freedoms will be curtailed. And the constitution will be burned.
Thank God we have Trump to turn thing around. He truly cares for the forgotten man. And if the doctors fail, he will cure the sick by blessing them.
Stop abortions and the stats will go up! Republicans can and will fix this for Americans, by hook or by crook.
TFA links to some summaries, but some of the categories (particular deaths due to accidents) are aggravatingly unspecific. Alzheimer's and accidents (unintentional injuries) had the largest year-over-year increases, at +4.0 and +2.7 deaths per 100,000. The other causes were all +1.5 or less. The increase in these two exceeded the increases in all the other top-10 combined.
I'm really curious to see what the breakdown for unintentional injury deaths looks like for 2015. We're in the middle of a prescription painkiller addiction epidemic which is going largely unreported by the media. Two years ago, overdoses displaced motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of accidental death - a position it had held for over a half century. This year we lost more famous people to overdoses than to gun violence, even though the media spent a vastly disproportionate amount of time focusing on the latter. The day of the UCLA shooting (1 murder, 1 suicide), there was a synthetic drug poisoning incident at a concert in Florida which killed 2 and sent 60 to the hospital. But the media concentrated almost entirely on the UCLA shooting.
Looking at the individual cases, I don't think it is as bad as it sounds.
Cancer deaths, the second most common cause, went down.
Hearth diseases went up, which is troubling, but in a lot of cases caused by bad life choices.
Another is unintentional injuries. Which I don't think has much to do with the healthcare system, and probably in part also due to higher average age.
The other causes which took a bigger share are "old age" diseases.
A curious one to me is the increasing infant deaths due to congenital malformations. Any ideas about what is causing this?
They are afraid of work, which has led to extreme sedentary lifestyles. The only benefit of UBI is that they would drop like flies, just like the only benefit of islam is liberals flying off rooftops.
One year could be an anomaly you can expect anomalies every now and then you just hope it doesn't point to a more long term trend.
Who would pay for Slashdot? There's like, 100 regulars, if that. I see the same people posting in every article and most articles canymt even get to 100 comments.
It only seems like they're paid for because the editors hate Trump.
For the plebs, it's been dropping. Reason #2458 why raising the age for SS or Medicare is fascist BS.
If they think it's bad now, just wait 'til Herr Trump gets those immigrant "recreation camps" open with the "community showers".
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
All you idiots blaming this tiny decrease on the ACA should look at what happened in Russia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian system went from fully public to private, and life expectancy plummeted from numbers similar to those in most developed countries to 3rd world levels (i.e. as low as 50 years for men)! It was only after your hero Putin RE-SOCIALIZED the Russian medical system in the early 2000's that Russian life expectancy has crept back up into the 70s.
rapiscan scanners at the airport
four more words!
"American life expectancy declines..." Yeah, electing a hothead with his finger on the red button will do that to you.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
I hate my job.
I hate my job.
I hate my job.
I hate my job.
I think about my job constantly to the point of anxiety.
Anxiety physically manifesting as IBS and popping in my ear on loud noises and shaking hands and twitching eyelids.
I must think about my job all the time to avoid obsolescence.
I hate that programming languages and frameworks and hardware are obsolete in 5 years.
I must stay up all night reading about new technology.
I hate my job.
My grandparents and most of my uncles are dead, except one, who will be dead next year.
My father also died of brain cancer, most likely from welding fumes and the toxic crap in gasoline.
My father hated his job(s). So I became an engineer.
But I hate my job.
But I hate my boss.
I hate my boss's stupid impossible schedules.
I hate how my boss can make me fly across country on a moment's notice.
I hate Delta and the TSA but it is what I know.
I hate my customers but it is what I know.
I hate computers but it is what I know.
I hate my psychopath boss's boss, but I think I can understand and predict his p$ychopathy, because he chooses the most inconvenient and painful choice that I know.
I hate my job but it is what I know.
I hate that my job won't let me take a breath to see a doctor.
I hate that a doctor won't really care.
I hate myself for not caring about myself.
I hate that my only motivation is neurosis over a non-complete task.
I hate my job.
Deaths per 1000 population (2016 est.) :)
Sweden 9.4 (locked in the sauna?)
Denmark 10.3 (ham? happiness? bicycles?)
Norway 8.1 (falling into the fjord?)
Finland 9.9 (because my distant relatives party too much
Iceland 6.3 (cousin sisterwife goads me mercilessly while we're trekking to the volcano..)
UK 9.4 (treacle?)
Canada 8.3 (hockey?)
USA 8.2 (complaining about ACA..)
Complaining about whatever it is that your friends complain about all the time is fucking wimpy. Grow a fucking cortex.
I would imagine Alzheimers deaths were categorized as "old age" or something similar. I think it's a relatively recent realization that while many people develop mental problems as they get older, this is not an absolute certainty and often there is a disease involved (so they blame the disease instead of just "that's the way people age").
Oh, also we might be getting better at looking after the various illnesses and problems that come more easily with Alzheimers, so that instead of dying of pneumonia / flu / breaking a hip (and the subsequent physical downward slide) / etc, people are living long enough with the disease that it gets to the truly critical systems (breathing and such), where it can be the primary cause of death instead of just an invitation for a different cause of death.
A tiny blip in the data for one year is a completely meaningless non-event. You would expect to see something like this occasionally by random chance and it would be surprising if we didn't. It doesn't mean life expectancy is on the decline. It doesn't mean anything. If it continues to decline for several years then it might be something worth looking at, but one year means squat.
This kind of arbitrary date picking cause and effect game also works great with the economy! Try it at home, kids!
Yeah, it's amazing all the weird results you get if you just cherry-pick the last 8 years or so.
Life expectancy has gone down.
The Middle East has fallen apart.
Relations with Russia are at the worst they've been since the Cold War.
Labor-force participation has dropped to the lowest level in decades and the jobs have become worse.
I won't why those all have 8 years or so in common?
So what you're saying is, maybe I shouldn't be drinking the mercury that comes out of those old school thermometers, and playing with those discarded fire-alarms inside that off-limits shack with the peeling lead paint?
Over the last five years life expectancies in the U.S. have gone up, so I presume you're looking for something that happened five years ago to make overall life expectancies go up, right? Or does your twisted logic only work one way?
Aging population is a problem here (EU) and some of the psot mentionned (mental degeneration like alzeihmer, accident) are stuff which happens more likely to old population. Looking at the median age , US population became older. Could it be simply the median age rising it finally "catch up" with the death toll (e.g. you have two factors going against each other, rising quality of care and rising median age, maybe we did not see the rising median age effect before because it was covered by rising quality of care ?). Median age in years
1960 29.5
1970 28.1
1980 30
1990 32.9
2000 35.3
2010 37.2
2015 37.8
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
The problem is that there is no incentive for corporations to have people live healthy lives. As a result of this people are slowly being killed by the things they eat and the medicines they take. The obvious solution is to create feedback loops that discourage damaging profit motives.
For example, if you sell a product and a customer become ill as a result, your company has to contribute to their rehabilitation. This of course has the caveat of needing to record what people buy (already done by most companies) and relying on statistical analysis. As more and more data correlates a product to illness, the heavier the monetary burden is put on the corporation making it.
Corporation have already fubar'd a lot of people so the burden is going to be quite heavy for them for many years but if they correct the products they know are hurting people, it will decrease over time. If they decide, "fuck it, sell it anyway" then the monetary burden will increase until it drives them out of business.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Causes of death are often complex, especially in older people, who may be suffering from a variety of issues simultaneously. Nonetheless, one underlying cause should not be overlooked: increasing obesity in the US drives a lot of other health issues.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
This is mostly effecting baby boomers.
It's not so much the average age changing as the middle shifting to reflect the dying off of the first children of the age of the atom.
This is going to keep happening until the boomers finish dying off. Then you'll see a serious uptick as their rad hardened children and grandchildren begin to outstrip them by far.
This is actually really good news. It means we won't have to keep paying for boomers to live to ungodly ages, meaning gen-x and the millennials have some hope of a retirement that doesn't involve changing diapers.
Consider the place with the largest cohort of super centenarians...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Here's a hint, we dropped nukes on it about 72 years ago.
Killed everyone that was going to die of radiation and / or cancer in the process.
Those that survived have passed their genes onto a new generation. Cancer rates in Japan are ultra low as a result.
http://healthhubs.net/cancer/c...
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Mark my words, the cancer death rates there are approaching 0 rapidly as those susceptible to it die off earlier, thereby leaving more reproductive opportunities for those who are not susceptible.
You're killing yourselves. Mass shooting A? 14 down. Mass shooting B? 20 down.
I takes 9months to replace one of those...
Fact: Under Obama care, life expectancy declines. In addition, there are many news articles detailing how coverage cost as gone way up and services have gone down.
Conclusion: It is trumps fault.
You sir, are the stuff retards are made of.
It's sure to drop further once he repeals health care.
That's one rationalization of the future.
Another one is that life expectancy has gone down because more people are impoverished.
If you don't have a lot of money, you tend to scrimp and cut corners. You might not be able to purchase a new winter jacket, might not be able to take a day or two off of work when you're sick, and might not be able to recover from a burglary.
If the economy picks up in a way that benefits the people instead of businesses, more disposable cash might lead to longer life expectancy.
But hey - don't let me interfere with your narrative. The "and replace it with something better" thing will *never* **ever** happen.
Because... Trump.
Health care spending as a percent of GDP is double what it is in all advanced economies and we have worse outcomes by several measures. THE SOLUTION IS NOT TO SPEND MORE MONEY! WE ALREADY DO THAT BY A HUGE AMOUNT! The fix involves getting the drug, hospital and insurance prices down and that involves spending LESS money.
Only 80 killed in 10 years, sounds like the defense was working for the most part.
The problem with healthcare is there is no ceiling to the cost and the end result is always the same, everyone dies eventually. Most of the early deaths appear to be lifestyle related anyway. Any reasonable person should prefer money to be spent on preventing unnecessary deaths (like terrorism) and just take care of themselves better to handle the longevity part.
The US now has 10 aircraft carriers, 2 under construction, and 1 planned. (source)
Military spending is 54% of our national budget, which is more than the amount of our deficit. More than the combined spending of the next seven countries.
What was that you were saying about spending ceilings?
Maybe the post WWII "baby boomers" are getting old, and we reach a step where these people just start to die. Thus, despite progresses in medical science, statistics are skewed.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Give people quality healthcare and they'll live longer.
Why am I not surprised? Of course Bill's was STD-related, and Barry's was drug-related (obesity from too many munchies).
The war on drugs and Obamacare clearly aren't working.
In a country with... The highest levels of obesity in the world. Where the citizens carry lethal weapons and shootings are a daily occurrence. Has a privatized health care system that many people can not afford to be part of. Why would anyone be surprised that the average lifespan is decreasing?
The disturbing part is not the fact that longevity is in decline.
The disturbing part is the likelihood that it is by design.
Every government has a responsibility of resource management, and when a population continues to increase, policies and procedures must be put in place to help execute that responsibility.
If you take a look at our policies and legal products, it paints quite an alarming picture. Tobacco is a legal product. From a health perspective, it makes absolutely zero fucking sense, as it kills 450,000 Americans every year, while providing zero benefit for a human body.
That said, it is a legal product because it kills 450,000 Americans every year. It also is a leading cause of cancer, so government also gets the benefit of ticking off the "creates jobs" box with all of the related diseases caused by tobacco, namely the highly-profitable Cancer Industrial Complex. You really believe we're searching for a cure to eradicate an industry that generates well over $100 billion a year in profits, along with the twisted side benefit of population control? Think again.
And tobacco is but one example of resource management. Think marijuana is still considered "deadly" per DEA Schedule standards? Hardly. It's not legal because it's not deadly enough to benefit resource management. It also helps fund the War on Drugs, creates thousands of jobs in the DEA, and feeds the Privatized Prison Complex. The only downside is we've earned the illustrious moniker of The Incarcerated States of America, but clearly maintaining an illegal status is worth it.
Big Pharma has legalized the opium den in quite an elegant and profitable way, creating addicts, jobs, and deaths. And every study says HFCS is bad for you? Yup, let's ensure we put that shit in as many food products as possible while minimizing health risks. Carcinogens in makeup? Sure, why not. All examples of policy feeding the resource management responsibility.
TL; DR - Death is by design, backed by policy, because every government has a responsibility of resource management.
It's better to sit in the front seat - that way the pain only lasts a second.
Oh it did, it's just that white folks ignored it or assumed it was justified. And they would've gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for those pesky cellphones.
Normally I don't answer to AC but your post is especially funny. If the report was coming from an insurance conglomerate, like alliance, you would have a point. But the CDC is only showing a health report... Which has nothing to do with actuaries. So maybe it pay to read the summary from time to time, even if you don't botzher read the article ?LOL.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
A general increase in life expectancy over a century has also made alzheimers far more common - as a helluva lot of people live long enough to get it without being killed by something else at 40.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
It needs to be pointed out that Obama is still the president until mid-January. This news is happening during Obama's reign. Thanks for reducing our life expectancy, Obama.
You realize how fucking asinine that opinion is, right?
You're saying that all these racist white people voted for Obama, because they.. Hated black people more back then?
What version of the Democrat playbook are you using? I'm on version 6.3.17 and I see no such distinction. I would imagine such a distinction would be a major version change as it breaks compatibility with legacy propaganda efforts.
Thanks Obama!
I wonder how the stats will change once he deports people and reduces immigration? We're not exactly taking people in for their prime health.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
https://static01.nyt.com/image...
Obamabots cheered as 10million+ American CITIZENS lost their healthcare due to Obamacare - the people who lost were mostly working-class white people, whom Obama and all the Democrats in congress swore would be able to "keep your doctor" and "keep your plan". Those 10 million were then FORCED to buy into Obamacare (TEXTBOOK Fascism, not the cartoon fascism liberals always rant about). In doing so, those 10Million+ became HALF of the 20Million Obama now brags get their healthcare via Obamacare and they get far worse coverage for far more money with increasing premiums, and reducing benefits in every year going forward. The other Obamacare "customers"? A bunch of freeloaders who pay little-to-nothing for their coverage and in California many are Illegal aliens.
Sorry, but this decrease in US Life Expectancy is ENTIRELY on Obama's watch and WITH Obamacare. You Obamabots cannot dodge these FACTS no matter you much you try to push DNC talking points and phony Obama "narratives".
When Zeke Emmanuel (One of Obama's chief Obamacare architects) was recently asked about all the rate increases and unintended consequences, he replied that Obamacare is working exactly as intended. He had previously gone on the record pushing his "whole life plan" where government would track a person's value over his or her entire lifetime and decide how much to spend on that person's healthcare according to how much value there person could contribute to the government. The young and the old would be allowed to die under that scheme, and society would only provide healthcare to well-educated young adults.
Johnathan Gruber (One of Obama's economists) was recently caught on video explaining that Obama took advantage of the stupidity of the average voter, generally, and more-specifically of Obama supporters to trick them into supporting Obamacare. He announced that lack of transparency was a key tool the Obama administration used to fool people into supporting the ACA.
Go right on imagining that you are smart to support Obama - even he and his people are laughing at how stupid and gullible you were. Remember: Obama's only real-world (as opposed to college or politics) experience before becoming president was as a "community organizer" and he organized you right into shortening your own life.
Actually, the rich are living longer ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02... ) There are several reasons why overall longevity in the US is down.
- Cost of health care
- Life style: Americans are much more sedentary. Obesity rates and associated diseases are up ( high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels) . We're seeing 40 year olds in nursing homes due to obesity. Nursing homes are having to retro-fit equipment and make larger doors for Bariatric patients.
- The shift in wealth to the rich. As wealth disparity increases, there's less resources (money) for poor.
The military is both mandated by the Constitution and is part of the basic definition of a nation-state (provision for the national defense against external threats to the population). It is part of what the Constitution refers to as the "general welfare" - it applies to the overall nation and not to individuals. The Military has no legal obligation to protect a particular average citizen (it's mission is NOT the specific welfare of individuals) its duty is to protect the overall nation, and in doing so to hopefully protect as many individuals as possible, but the focus is on the nation. To the extent that the military protects/saves individuals it is as part of the overall mission or simply because it can, but the forces are not designed for that task.
Healthcare, like food, clothing, housing, transportation, vacations, recreation, and education is about INDIVIDUAL, as opposed to general, welfare. It's nice, and everybody wants it, and every Miss America contestant can hope these things will be free for everybody, along with free rides on unicorns and free buckets of gold at the end of rainbows, but it is NOT something the Constitution requires the government to be involved in. The Constitution gives the government no role in these things, even though politicians (in BOTH parties) of the past few decades have ignored that and used lots promises of these things to buy votes.
In truth, the more government gets involved in this sort of stuff the more expensive and less individual it becomes and the areas least-affected by government are where costs are best controlled - consider things like LASIK eye surgery which is generally not involved in government health "reforms": you can get it safely and rather affordably on short notice and often in a shopping center, with continual improvements and prices kept down by competition. Much of the rest of healthcare is partly under the thumb of government and you have waiting lines and spiraling prices (partly from all the cost-shifting) and you generally cannot even find out how much some medical procedure or test will cost until you have it and start getting the bills. I'm facing this right now...I was forced off of my old insurance and into the far-more-expensive Obamacare. I'm having surgery today and have been on a waiting list. I have not been able to get the price. I will start getting bills right after the procedure (actually, the surgeon billed me BEFORE the procedure for his expensive part of it) and it will be months before I know how many thousands of dollars I will be paying (thanks to Obamacare's sky-high deductibles that makes these plans nearly worthless)
In the US, infant mortality generally includes any death of a human being (who is not intentionally aborted) from the time that human is "viable" but still inside its mom.
In much of the rest of the world (it varies by country) a child's death is not recorded as such if it has not reached some number of days, weeks, or even months after being born. Therefore, a child who dies from complications during child birth in the US would be added to the US infant mortality rate, but the same child dying the same way in many other nations would NOT be so recorded. This is how many governments make themselves look better, by monkeying with the stats instead of actually improving things.
That old infant mortality stat as a comparison of healthcare quality has been debunked many times, but it does not stop propagandists from using it.
Let me give you a better comparison re the US and Cuba: When Michael Moore (the sloppy-dressing millionaire guy who made the film "Sicko" praising Castro's heathcare system and probably influenced YOU to think Cuba's system is good) recently had a health crisis he did NOT go to Cuba for care..... he ran straight to one of those obviously inferior American hospitals. hmmmmmmm
Obama and his supporters are actually hate-filled genocidal bigots.
Not that I am in perfect health, mind, but I seem to have picked the slow burn variety, in any case. We could use more detail sometimes, as in couch-potato-gamer-and-big-gulp-soda-and-pasta.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
so instead of simply existing the last few years of your life, now you are existing the last few years of your life minus a couple of months.
Don't worry. Once Ryan pushes his voucher idea through, you won't be able to afford treatment under Medicare even if you are old enough to qualify.
The military is both mandated by the Constitution and is part of the basic definition of a nation-state (provision for the national defense against external threats to the population). It is part of what the Constitution refers to as the "general welfare" - it applies to the overall nation and not to individuals.
You'll find that the basic definitions of a nation-state now include healthcare. The US's intransigence on that subject is meaningless obstruction, not principled counter-argument.
Healthcare, like food, clothing, housing, transportation, vacations, recreation, and education is about INDIVIDUAL, as opposed to general, welfare.
Nope, Healthcare is very much about the general, as is food, clothing, housing, transportation, and education. I'd even say conceptually, that the vacations and recreation also fit.
That's why the state mandates immunizations, regulates doctors, the food supply, works to be sure that people do have safe clothing, housing, and effective transportation, and why education is also part of the state's mandate.
The Constitution gives the government no role in these things, even though politicians (in BOTH parties) of the past few decades have ignored that and used lots promises of these things to buy votes.
Transportation is very much in the government's role in the US Constitution, and you should check out state constitutions, they do cover education expressly as well.
In truth, the more government gets involved in this sort of stuff the more expensive and less individual it becomes and the areas least-affected by government are where costs are best controlled - consider things like LASIK eye surgery which is generally not involved in government health "reforms": you can get it safely and rather affordably on short notice and often in a shopping center, with continual improvements and prices kept down by competition.
Consider all the people reporting injuries and having complaints about LASIK eye surgery. And hearing aids. And those teeth whitening services. And all sorts of scams from "detox pads" to "herbal pills" that contain sawdust.
Oh wait, you don't want to do that, do you?
Much of the rest of healthcare is partly under the thumb of government and you have waiting lines and spiraling prices (partly from all the cost-shifting) and you generally cannot even find out how much some medical procedure or test will cost until you have it and start getting the bills. I'm facing this right now...I was forced off of my old insurance and into the far-more-expensive Obamacare. I'm having surgery today and have been on a waiting list. I have not been able to get the price. I will start getting bills right after the procedure (actually, the surgeon billed me BEFORE the procedure for his expensive part of it) and it will be months before I know how many thousands of dollars I will be paying (thanks to Obamacare's sky-high deductibles that makes these plans nearly worthless)
Yawn, long lines? Because you don't instantly have surgery right now, since it's probably not good for an emergency surgery to just be done, so that's a good thing, meanwhile, you're complaining about them not knowing the cost of what they'll do before they do it! Damn, that's almost like contractors and auto mechanics, and lawyers, and every other damn professional you can name.
But hey, you had a chance to demand your insurance company not be able to rip you off, and don't pretend it's Obamacare's fault, it's the insurance company getting its beak wet, but you didn't.
So suck it.
Guess what else got passed in the early 1990's?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Thanks, Obama.
But, you can't have poor people dying because they can't afford healthcare... [...]
Sure you can. It's just you are probably either a sociopath or psychopath if you're okay with.
Given the number of strokes, heart attacks, and alcohol overdoses that occurred after the US election results, it makes sense that the yearly average was badly skewed.
What kind of reactions and side reactions will you form?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Like most such statistics, reporters fail to understand that the population whose characteristics are changing is not a static object. What we have seen over recent decades is an influx of unskilled workers from abroad, much higher birth rates among poor people, and the introduction of widespread birth control among the well-to-do and educated. That skews the population in time to those who are more prone to substance "abuse," occupational diseases, poor health behavior, etc., as well as just plain bad longevity genes.
Fuck you
But "the 1%" lives longer.
Inequality causes mortality.
....and you WILL get cancer. It's just the nature of the human condition.
Only one conclusion can be made from this: If you want to live longer, move out of the US.
WTB [sig], PST!!!
the population broken down by race, blacks/hispanics have lower expectancy. They also have higher birthrate than whites/asians. it will go down without any group changing anything else. the total drop is like a month of expectancy or whatever. not a big change
What you have, appears to be a dependency or an addiction on food (maybe severe), and it seems that you want to eat food all the time. Try chewing gum; maybe you have already.
One reason could be constant feelings of hunger because of an enlarged liver. I could suggest you to have a liver reduction operation, though it's expensive and can be risky. But outcomes are usually successful. If your liver is healthy despite your obesity (so ask your doctor), then you might want to donate that piece to an organ bank.
Another cause is some kind of a genetic disorder that gives you constant feelings of hunger, and that may be harder to treat. I'm not a physician or a nutritionist.
Your "effort" is probably eating too little at a time, which leaves you hungry, and then you might be consuming food with the kinds of drinks that evaporate all the nutritional value of the food you eat. The thing about improper dieting (or hungering) is, that every once in a while, some people give up and binge-eat just to feel whole again. And then they "diet" yet again.
I get eating whatever food, because even trash food can have at least some nutritional value, but trash food eaters (I don't know your current diet, so I'm generalising) tend to accompany their food with beer or like alcoholic drink (wine | liquor | champagne) or cola and other fizzy drinks. It is those beverages that cause fattiness.
Fizzy drinks are usually consumed in their cold state, typically with ice, which fast food joints always add, unless told not to. Yes, ice makes colas and beers taste good.
Now, the point about cold drinks is, that they slow down digestion and metabolism, and heavily contribute to obesity.
So, when eating, replace cold drinks with warm drinks—preferably tea—because it's warm and will make digestion faster. Every once in a while, you could afford yourself a cold-drink treat, such as something nice once a month to accompany a burger. A burger and cola meal, but once a month.
Take life as it is, and don't shut yourself out of your social life. Move around. If money is tight, allow yourself to treats where you can save.
Eat when others eat, but select wisely, and choose warm drinks.
Eat slowly and enjoy the taste. Back home, you could have some fresh nuts and raisins (not fried or salted) or dried fruits, and a cup of warm tea.
Sleep at least eight hours every night. This is really important. Because if you sleep less, then that definitely causes your organism to be in an 'unsated' state, causing it to request more and more food. If you can afford to in your daily schedule, allow yourself to go to sleep earlier in order to give yourself a ninth or tenth sleeping hour. Alarm clocks were meant not for those who are sleeping, but for those waking up already. (Do heed their call, though, when going to work.) More sleep and earlier sleep reduces 'screen time', but it's better on your eyes. If your days are long, then really do (figuratively) recharge your batteries on weekends, which should translate to more wholesome sleep.
Crops are a strategic resource, because one never knows when a country must suddenly become self-sufficient for a number of years, or if disaster strikes and some food production in a region is impossible, but same-country import is. That's why there has to be some overproduction, and also in order to keep competition up and to avoid a food deficit and price gouging. Crops are also a resource for export, if production is greater than actual local demand.
Isn't this fucking obvious?
You bring in someone who wants to gut supports for the poor and disabled, cut research dollars, doesn't believe in climate change, etc.
Of course the life expectancy of the average American is going to go down.
retard
This discussion comes up on Slashdot fairly often. I won a scholarship for economics and got a degree in finance. I also was in a corporate mentorship program where I was an intern to the president of insurance company. So here goes... I know this might blow peoples' minds, but in aggregate, and over long periods of time, "speculators" in every commodity from corn to coffee slightly subsidize producers (in aggregate they lose money). You could write a whole book on why, but I see insurance companies as speculators. They speculate on the probability of a given group's risk of a negative event. If there was unfettered competition, insurance companies would actually slightly subsidize their consumers. It amazes me how many people actually read an article and worry about the profits of insurance companies. Health insurance especially is a government protected oligopoly (monopoly or duopoly in many areas), and we are all suffering from the results of worse health outcomes and higher costs. The only reason insurance companies profit is because of government intervention, and you can assume any government intervention was written by and for the insurance companies that will profit. Insurance companies could never function without books worth of government regulation and legal precedent that functions about the same (there are literally libraries in most insurance company offices). Otherwise, insurance companies would never be able to stay in business. I wouldn't mind living in a world without insurance, but that's a political opinion. Insurance benefits people who have good lawyers the most and sick and dying people who can't fight the least.