In 2015 US Life Expectancy declined for the first time since 1993. I say we blame ObamaCare. And why not? We’re this to happen under a Republican administration (and keep in mind the last time was also under a Democrat), they and their policies would be the leading cause.
We also have the “benefit” of having been under the heel of a signature Democrat health-care program whose arguments in favor included America’s ‘dismal’ life expectancy compared to the more civilized western nations. A scheme that has failed miserably on nearly every front to which we may now add this.
(NPR) Most notably, the overall death rate for Americans increased because mortality from heart disease and stroke increased after declining for years. Deaths were also up from Alzheimer’s disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease and diabetes. More Americans also died from unintentional injuries and suicide. In all, the decline was driven by increases in deaths from eight of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.
The things most likely to kill us killed us sooner half a decade into the progressives exponentially more expensive experiment known as the Affordable Care Act.
(WaPo) 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.
Had this occurred in 2006 or 2007 it would have been the leading cry of liberals looking to exponentially expand the bureaucracy with a massive government health care program. Seeing as it has occurred amidst a transition of presidents and priorities, one of which it a move away from the “failed policies of the past™” I think it suitable to add this decline to the already ample reasons to abandon what has become the Democrats Unaffordable Declining Care Act.
People are dying, damn you! Don’t you have any bloody compassion? This ObamaCare thing is killing people. Insert, signs, paid protesters, photo-ops with individuals in lab coats, lots of lies, special favors for leery legislators, and we can call it even. Except for the part where we dismantle scores of boards and committees. Take hundreds of billions spent on taxpayer-funded office space, supplies, salaries, and benefits, and return all that money to the people who earned it; in the form of lower taxes, lower competitive premiums, better boutique or buffet benefit plans, and in all likelihood a return to rising life-expectancy. All while flooding the private sector with resume wielding former health-care bureaucrats who’ll be pissed when they can’t get a job because it has been taken by a kiosk.
Buck up defenestrated flunkies. There will be plenty of openings in the energy sector. Maybe you can learn to dig coal.
No, it won’t all happen like that, but one thing appears certain. Democrats have girded their loins to defend the biggest stinking pile of steaming legislative crap this century. Republicans have a very slim margin in the Senate and fold like the French. But ObamaCare is pricing people out of insurance altogether which is a striking contrast to the stated purpose of the legislation and every promise (see also lie) perpetuated by the media and Democrats all across a fruited plain that watched the things most likely to kill us kill more of us just a bit sooner.
Something has to change, and it has to change now. And I hope it does.
