#ChronicIllnesses thrive in a sink-or-swim #culture, w/the US gov spending far less than peer countries on #PreventiveMedicine & #SocialWelfare generally. Breakthroughs in #technology, #medicine & #nutrition that should be boosting average life spans have instead been overwhelmed by #poverty, #racism, #distrust of the #MedicalSystem, fracturing of #social networks & #unhealthy #diets built around highly #ProcessedFood, researchers told The Post.

This phenomenon is exacerbated by the country’s #economic, #political & #racial divides. #America is increasingly a country of haves & have-nots, measured not just by bank accts & property values but also by vital signs & grave markers. Dying prematurely… has become the most telling measure of the nation’s growing #inequality.

…early deaths (are) an extreme manifestation of an underlying deterioration of #health & a failure of the #HealthSystem to respond.

Even before the pandemic…
Sickness & death were/are scarring entire communities…. In a quarter of the nation’s counties, mostly in the #South & #Midwest, working-age people are dying at a higher rate than 40 years ago….

Deaths of adults 35-64 are concentrated in the nation’s interior, including #Appalachia, the #MississippiDelta & parts of the Midwest. In recent decades, death rates have been rising in the interior while declining in coastal regions.