COVID was the fourth leading cause of US deaths in 2022 - other health news is even worse
The current state of COVID in the US
Fewer Americans died of COVID in 2022 than they did in 2021. That is the end of the good news. In 2020, COVID killed 345,323 Americans. In 2021, the number increased to 462,193. In 2022, it declined to 244,986.
So far in 2023, the COVID death toll has averaged 150 a day, a decline from its peak of 2,500 in early 2022.
Rational people will celebrate the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine. Anti-vaxxers will claim the efficacy of antimalarials, anti-parasitics, UV light, vinegar, vodka, bleach, cocaine, marijuana, herd immunity, and divine intercession.
Let us also note that other addle-pated people say the COVID statistics have been inflated by hospitals padding profits, vaccine manufacturers grabbing a payday, big-government socialists crushing patriots' freedom, and Dr. Fauci. The reality is that the COVID deaths have been undercounted — as evidenced by the number of excess deaths recorded in the US during the COVID pandemic.
While the vaccinated can rest assured they have done the heavy lifting of doing the necessary to stay alive — and the anti-vaxxers have not — it is apparent that COVID has receded from being a devastating threat to all to being a chronic killer of the co-morbid, the unfortunate, and the moronic.
The big killers
This diminution may lessen deaths from the pandemic du jour, but it still leaves us with the classic killers. And they are not going away. As the Washington Post reports,
By far the biggest killers remain heart disease and cancer. This was the third straight year the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease has risen, and the second straight year for cancer deaths. The death rate from all causes in the United States in 2022 was almost as high as the rate in 2020 and much higher than in 2019.
COVID can take some of the blame for these deaths, as the article goes on to say,
Some of the increase in heart disease and cancer deaths may be an effect of the pandemic. For example, cancer screenings declined as many people chose to postpone medical visits. Heart disease may have also been exacerbated by inflammation related to covid.
Then we get to the veritably depressing news. Mortality is increasing for Americans in their middle years.
But there has been a well-documented erosion of health in the country for working-age people, a trend that predated the pandemic. Life expectancy historically has improved along with improvements in infant and maternal mortality rates, as well as better public health measures, including vaccinations, that limit the ravages from infectious diseases. But the gains in U.S. life expectancy plateaued after 2010, and it declined for several years mid-decade before ticking up slightly just before the coronavirus appeared.
Healthcare
If money equaled health, Americans would be the healthiest, longest-living people on the planet. The US spends more on health as a percentage of GDP than any other industrial nation — by a lot. Americans, however, are not getting a bang for their healthcare buck.
The life expectancy of citizens of every country on that chart is longer than that of the US — usually by several years. America is even behind Cuba. Why?
Causes
I am not a healthcare maven. So I cannot answer with authority why Americans are generally more unhealthy and shorter-lived than people in all industrial and some undeveloped countries. But here are a few possibilities. First, let us consider where the money goes.
1. Medicine in America is for-profit. Both providers and insurers have costs associated with running businesses that are supposed to turn a profit — for instance, marketing. Profit-making companies also pay their executives millions. Then there is the profit itself and the dividends paid to equity holders.
Take the US’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc. In 2022, it made profits of $20.2 billion. Money not spent on healthcare.
2. Doctors are incentivized. Pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment manufacturers aggressively press doctors to prescribe expensive drugs and run tests. Threats of malpractice suits can also cause doctors to order unnecessary procedures and prescribe promiscuously. Doctors are rarely sued for doing something unnecessary but harmless.
Also, some doctors have invested in medical facilities. A medical professional with money in an MRI concern may be more likely to order MRI scans — “just to be safe”.
3. Big Pharma. Because America is not a “single payer” system, it is harder for medical insurers to negotiate drug prices. And the GOP has been fiercely resistant to Medicare negotiating drug prices. There is good news. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) Medicare can start doing so. We will have to see how effective the negotiators will be.
Next, let us consider why Americans are so unhealthy
4. Lack of insurance coverage. Obamacare reduced the number of uninsured Americans from 46.5 million in 2010 to 29.6 million in 2022. That is good news for 17 million Americans. But it still leaves almost 30 million uncovered. And people without healthcare rarely prevent preventative medicine or even nip problems in the bud. They wait until things are bad and then use hospital emergency rooms — notoriously expensive places — for non-emergency care.
Even people with healthcare insurance are less likely to go to the doctor with copays and other expenses. And while in most developed countries, the first question a patient is usually asked is, “What’s the matter?” In the US it is invariably, “What’s your insurance?”
5. Obesity. Americans are getting fatter. The average American woman in 2015 weighed the same at 166.2 lbs, as an average American man in the early 1960s
While the average American man, at 195.5 lbs, gained 30 lbs in the same timeframe.
6. Drugs. The good news is that fewer people smoke. And the number of drinkers has not increased. However, opioid use and deaths have increased significantly. In 2021, 106,099 Americans died from a drug overdose.
7. Cars, guns, and homicides. Fewer people die in car accidents. But uniquely among industrial nations, America has a lot of gun deaths — both homicides and suicides.
The US suicide rate is higher than any Western European Country — three times that of Spain. And its murder rate is higher than any other developed country — six times that in the UK.
8. Sick days Currently, there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave. For companies subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Act does require unpaid sick leave. Which makes Americans less likely to call out sick. What goes around comes around.
9. Access to healthcare. Hospitals in the US are closing — especially in less populated areas. According to Beckers Hospital Review 631 rural hospitals, 29% of the total, may soon shutter their doors.
There is also a shortage of bedside nurses. One study cited by PBS suggests as many as 450,000 by 2025.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most significant difference between America and the rest of the industrial world is that the US — despite being (at least in the conservative imagination) a pro-life, Christian country — does not view healthcare as a human right.
Worse, any attempt to institute universal coverage is viewed as a socialist takeover of healthcare. However, an alien visitor analyzing Earth’s various healthcare systems would have to conclude that government-run healthcare is far better than whatever it is America has.
The US has created a monstrosity - a healthcare system that is both hideously expensive and second-rate. And for that, we can thank conservative politicians who have excellent government-sponsored healthcare. Fecking hypocrites.