• InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Reddit comment...

    I make a good living but it's hard to get ahead. I hurt my knee a few years back and I need surgery. But I can't afford to drop a few grand that I might need for my kids, rent, car etc. And I can't take the time off work.

    So my health has declined because of pain, financial stress, inability to work out the same way... etc.

    So yeah my health has suffered and I've probably Shaved 2-3 years off my life span. If I had lower cost healthcare, more social safety net, and better job security... I would've fixed up my knee years ago and my quality of life would be up. Simple.

    Innerouterself2 comments on Why are Americans dying so young? US life expectancy is in freefall as the young and the poor bear the brunt of struggles for shared prosperity

    • OperationOgre [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of my peers in their 30s either don't have health insurance or can't afford the health insurance they do have. They're foregoing most or all preventive healthcare visits because it's too expensive. It's going to catch up with a lot of us in our 40s and 50s.

      Not to mention that healthcare costs for our elderly parents will likely wring them of their entire net worth before they're allowed to die, so we don't have any kind of inheritance to look forward to either. The US health system is seriously fucked

      • SoyViking [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        The US has the world's highest public healthcare spending per capita and the world's second-highest private healthcare spending. In return they rank among mid-income countries when it comes to things like longevity and infant mortality.

        Americans are being ripped off.

      • Plant [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I was thinking about this the other day.

        The way a lot of middle class kids stay middle class or even move up is by getting a nice inheritance from their parents. But with the cost of healthcare and just like nursing homes and shit is gonna eat that all up and a ton of people are gonna be getting nothing and subsequently become downwardly mobile

        • emizeko [they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          the latest horror is medicaid estate recovery, where people who have nothing but their house die and their kids get nothing because the state repossesses it to "pay for" coverage. so health benefits are now a loan apparently

          the recent chapo with Libby Watson goes into detail

    • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      It looks like it's guns and cars and other external forces at work according to the thread, surprisingly

      • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        In the last graphs where they “magic” that stuff away there’s still a huge gap… like 50% of it

        Healthcare still plays a huge role

        • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          This is a scary place to live. It's difficult to handle, be normal, maintain relationships, when all this swings over you. Damocles' situation but it's just me wanting to have an apartment

        • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I was thinking it'd be clear cut on the side of healthcare, but it looks like I was reading it wrong anyways according to the other commenter