“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the proposed secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, would undo all of this. On his watch, were his ideas implemented, millions of us would die. Knowing that our lives will be shorter, we become nasty and brutish.”
This is a question I asked in 2017. What country had the second-highest mortality from noncommunicable conditions — like diabetes, heart disease or violence — and the fourth highest from infectious disease? Also, from adolescence to adulthood to old age, what country has the highest chance of dying an early death?
The answer is the United States of America. Where else, since the U.S. is the only developed country in the world without universal health care? Then why would Donald Trump nominate RFK, Jr., an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy follower with no medical background who is the least qualified person for guarding the health of Americans as Secretary of Health and Human Services?
Timothy Snyder said it best in looking at Trump’s cabinet picks to date:
“Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government.
“The foundation of modern democratic state is a healthy, long-lived population. We lived longer in the twentieth century because of hygiene and vaccinations, pioneered by scientists and physicians and then institutionalized by governments. We treat one another better when we know we have longer lives to lose. Health is not only the central human good; it enables the peaceful interactions we associate with the rule of law and democracy.
The Republican Party itself has been on the same path with their efforts to dismantle healthcare legislation such as Obamacare in the name of downsizing government.
A recent New York Times Business Insider article by Eduardo Porter highlighted a recent study by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of 16 of the richest countries in the world that set out to assess our nation’s health.
The results are devastating and show how far America has fallen behind in caring for its citizens.
This problem should have nothing to do with ideology, and whether access to affordable health care should be a privilege or a right. Too many Americans are dying of drug overdose and violence. Too many Americans suffer from depression, a major cause of drug abuse.
And too many Americans are obese, making them less productive and more prone to accidents in the workplace. “The United States ranks in the bottom fourth among the 30 industrialized nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of days lost to disability,” says Porter. “Women will lose 362 days between birth and their 60th birthday: men about 336. Mental health problems like depression will account for most.”
But these statistics hide the real problem—rampant income inequality that has caused many of these unhealthy ouitcomes.
The U.S. ranks 106th of the 149 countries in income inequality as ranked by the CIA’s World Factbook; with a Gini inequality index of developing countries like Peru and Cameroon. Finland and the Scandinavian countries are at the top of equality, Germany and France are 12th and 20th, respectively. The higher the index, the greater the gap between wealthy and poorer citizens of a country’s population.
And the poorer the person, family, or community, the more prone to illness and drug use is that person, or family, or community. This is where the just defeated Senate version of repeal and replace Obamacare bill would have hurt the most—in the poorer red states that voted for President Trump.
“What’s more, the United States’ higher tolerance of poverty undoubtedly contributes to higher rates of sickness and death,” says Porter. “Americans at all socioeconomic levels are less healthy than people in some other rich countries. But the disparity is greatest among low-income groups.”
Finally contributing to our health crisis is the incredible amount of violence—both due to guns (33,000 per year killed by guns), workplace accidents, and drug abuse, that a universal health care system would treat via mental health coverages as well.
In other words, there are much higher costs because we don’t have a healthy healthcare system and we the citizens are paying those costs.
Harlan Green © 2024
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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