<story><title>Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged people of all groups</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/health/life-expectancy-rate-usa.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kasey_junk</author><text>Without tackling the obesity&amp;#x2F;sedentary&amp;#x2F;nutrition problems the healthcare issue will persist.&lt;p&gt;Similarly the opioid&amp;#x2F;meth epidemics of the last 2 decades are not (just) healthcare problems.</text></item><item><author>claudeganon</author><text>&amp;gt; “The whole country is at a health disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said. “We are losing people in the most productive period of their lives. Children are losing parents. Employers have a sicker work force.”&lt;p&gt;For profit healthcare in America is devouring its people and economy, full stop. We can either have a society where half a million people go bankrupt from medical debt each year, thousands die from treatable illnesses and lack of access to medicines, while hospital CEOS and insurance execs walk away with millions. Or, we can have one that excises their parasitism like the rest of the developed world figured out was necessary decades ago.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Angostura</author><text>A good public healthcare system actually puts money into trying to address those problems, as does the government who pays for it. A private healthcare system may be a little more... ambivalent.</text></comment>
<story><title>Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged people of all groups</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/health/life-expectancy-rate-usa.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kasey_junk</author><text>Without tackling the obesity&amp;#x2F;sedentary&amp;#x2F;nutrition problems the healthcare issue will persist.&lt;p&gt;Similarly the opioid&amp;#x2F;meth epidemics of the last 2 decades are not (just) healthcare problems.</text></item><item><author>claudeganon</author><text>&amp;gt; “The whole country is at a health disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said. “We are losing people in the most productive period of their lives. Children are losing parents. Employers have a sicker work force.”&lt;p&gt;For profit healthcare in America is devouring its people and economy, full stop. We can either have a society where half a million people go bankrupt from medical debt each year, thousands die from treatable illnesses and lack of access to medicines, while hospital CEOS and insurance execs walk away with millions. Or, we can have one that excises their parasitism like the rest of the developed world figured out was necessary decades ago.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragonwriter</author><text>&amp;gt; Without tackling the obesity&amp;#x2F;sedentary&amp;#x2F;nutrition problems the healthcare issue will persist.&lt;p&gt;Without healthcare system improvements, you aren&amp;#x27;t going to succeed in tackling those.&lt;p&gt;But, yes, it&amp;#x27;s true that there are more problems with US health than the health care system (though the issues in the broader economy that are at issue are very similar to those effecting the helathcare system.)</text></comment>