• Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine writes on Medscape about this interesting article from Plos One: “U.S. state policy contexts and mortality of working-age adults” by Montez, Mohri, Monnat, et al. Dr. Wilson thinks that average education level may be the primary factor for the life expectancy discrepancy between states rather than state policies, but the authors in their abstract suggest that state policies may have a large impact:
“Simulations indicate that changing all policy domains in all states to a fully liberal orientation might have saved 171,030 lives in 2019, while changing them to a fully conservative orientation might have cost 217,635 lives.”
and in their discussion:
“On average, Americans die younger than their peers in most other high-income countries. In a 2013 U.S. survey, 85% of adult respondents indicated that their ideal life span was 79 years or older, yet U.S. life tables predicted that only 60% of people born that year could expect to survive to age 79 [40, 41]. Our findings, which examine working-age deaths among adults ages 25–64 years, suggest state policies–specifically, their left/right lean–may be a contributing factor and provide new insights into potential strategies to reduce working-age mortality.”