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The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations

The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations. Chronic disease is part of the cause, but so are guns, drugs and cars.

It “has the highest rates of preventable and treatable deaths”, says Reginald Williams, a health-policy specialist at the Commonwealth Fund, a think tank in New York City that publishes regular comparisons of health-care systems around the world. The gains were driven partly by a drop in smoking and increased use of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, which cut deaths from cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, says Thomas Bollyky, who directs the global-health programme at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank headquartered in New York City. In a May report 2, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, which Kennedy leads, blamed childhood chronic disease mainly on ultra-processed foods, excessive screen time, lack of physical activity, exposure to chemicals and overprescription of medications.

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