There are few universal indicators of the overall health of a country’s population—life expectancy being one of them. The disparity in life expectancy between developing and developed countries is prominent, and the gap between high-mortality developing countries and every other country is even more apparent. However, in general, in the past 50 years, the World Health Organization has reported that global life expectancy has increased almost 20 years—especially in developing countries. It would not be absurd to assume the life expectancy of an advanced nation, such as the United States, would also increase. This was the case for several decades until 2017 when the mortality rate increased for the third year in a row and became the nation's largest drop since 1910.
In 2017, the National Center for Health Statistics reported a drastically increasing American death rate and a concerning recent drop in life expectancy of citizens. The decline began back in 2015 where the expected life span dropped from 78.9 to 78.8. In 2016 it dropped again to 78.7, and in 2017 it reached a low of 78.6. Though the drops are not enough to raise concern for the overall health of the nation, in a country with hundreds of millions of people, the drop is significant and highlights an alarming problem in America today. Furthermore, if the United States had a relatively high life expectancy for developing countries, the slight drop would be less concerning. However, this is not the case. America has one of the lowest life expectancies among other developed countries—which is pretty surprising given the United States spends a considerable amount more than any other country on health care per capita. According to the CIA, the United States is ranked 43rd in life expectancy, trailing far behind other high-income countries such as Japan, Australia, and other western European countries. As of 2019, America’s life expectancy is nearly nine years behind Japan, which has a life expectancy of 85.3.
So what is causing the United State’s mortality rate to take a turn for the worst? According to the CDC, studies have shown there has been a shift in the amount of chronic disease-related deaths and a sharp increase in unintentional related injuries and suicide rates.
This rise in unintentional related injuries is largely thanks to a steep increase in synthetic opioid, fentanyl overdoses. In 2017 alone, deaths involving fentanyl increased more than 45 percent, while deaths from legal painkillers remained stable from 2016 to 2017.
Because of the growing opioid crisis in the United States, unintentional related injuries has now surpassed chronic lower respiratory diseases as the country's third largest cause of death. “In fact, the drop in life expectancy due to drug overdoses alone is about the same as the impact from Alzheimer's, liver disease and car accidents combined,” said a senior medical advisor for the CDC. The opioid crisis has been declared a national emergency as the rate is increasing at an alarming rate. In 2017, 70,237 Americans died from a drug overdose.
Chronic diseases are also taking a large toll on the population. According to a study conducted by NIH, nearly 4 in 5 Americans will deal with some version of chronic diseases as they head into retirement. The researchers determined “a person’s life expectancy at age 67 decreases 1.8 years for each additional chronic disease they have.”
Even though the United States spends two times more than the average country on health care per capita, why are the medications not working? At this point in medicinal ability, conventional medications are not effective on treating chronic diseases. Most medications that treat chronic diseases have one goal. Suppress the symptoms fast. And this marks probably the most important problem in the healthcare industry today. Many researchers dedicate time and money to medicine aimed toward temporarily suppressing symptoms instead of focusing on cures and causes of the disease. In turn, many times, medicine acts as a temporary bandage to a bigger problem.
The increase in suicides is also a huge contributor to the climb in mortality rates. From 1999 to 2017, the age-adjusted suicide rates has increased 33% from 10.5 to 14.0 suicide-related deaths per 100,000 people. And the suicide rate is not equal among all Americans. There is a disparity in the relationship between gender, geographical location and suicide rate. Males have a significantly higher suicide rate of more than 20 deaths per 100,000 population while females have a suicide rate of a little more than 5 deaths per 100,000. The rate in rural areas is 20.0 per 100,000 population while in large central metro areas, the rate is 11.1 per 100,000.
The increases in unintentional accidents, suicides, and chronic diseases—all problems rooted in health care—is a tell-tale sign that the health care system in the United States is inherently a broken system. Without significant change to the way the United States deals with preventing drug overdoses, helping those with mental illnesses, and treating those with chronic diseases, the only direction the mortality rate will go is up.
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