According to the latest data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American lives are on average shorter than those of other rich nations and the gap is always wider.
Until 1979, the typical American had a life expectancy of about 73,9 years, 1,5 years more than a child from one of the other countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - a group of 35 rich nations, predominantly Westerners, who instead had a life expectancy of about 72,3 years.
But in the 2015 this gap turned upside down. The average American born in that year lived a little less than 79 years, while the child born in an OECD country lived almost 81 years.
In the 2016, the life expectancy of the United States has declined for the second consecutive year, a statistical event that has not occurred since the beginning of the 60 years. The numbers for the remaining OECD countries are not yet available, but if previous trends continue, the gap between the US and the rest of the rich world is set to grow even further.
The United States remains one of the richest countries in the world. So, what happened? We can start with the health care system, which is something disastrous. In the US, we spend thousands of dollars more per capita on health care than any other country in the world, but in return we live a shorter life than people in most other rich nations. While the cure itself is generally quite good, access to it remains questionable: the United States is the only OECD country without a sort of universal health coverage, and as a result millions of Americans have no form of health insurance.
The recent repeal of the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act will ensure that, in the next decade, that number will grow by millions more. Violence is also jeopardizing Americans' life expectancy. A study by 2016 found that "murder rates in the United States were 7,0 times higher than other high-income countries. Easy access to the guns is the main factor.
Other elements that negatively affect the life span of Americans are lifestyles: tobacco consumption, obesity, disease and substantial differences in public policies in the United States and other OECD countries:
- The United States spends much less public money on early childhood care than almost all other OECD countries;
- The United States is the only high-income country in the world that does not require paid maternity leave. Ditto for sickness and holidays.
- US unemployment benefits are less generous than in most other OECD countries;
- Since the American tax system favors businesses and therefore entrepreneurs and capital owners, this creates an increase in social economic inequality compared to other OECD countries.
A study published last December revealed that "the disadvantage of mortality in the United States is, in part, a disadvantage of the welfare state". Americans are dying young, in part, because of the deliberate political choices they have made over the decades: by rejecting health care for individual payers, by cutting taxes on the rich, losing basic universal income, abandoning universal childhood.
These choices distinguish the US more and more from the rest of the rich world.