Inequality Is (Literally) Killing America

By Zoë Carpenter for the Nation – Only a few miles separate the Baltimore neighborhoods of Roland Park and Upton Druid Heights. But residents of the two areas can measure the distance between them in years—twenty years, to be exact. That’s the difference in life expectancy between Roland Park, where people live to be 83…

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The U.S. Lags in Life Expectancy Gains

From Bloomberg Businessweek – Life expectancy in the U.S. has been growing more slowly than in other developed countries and is now more than a year below the developed-country average, according to a new report (PDF) from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Even though Americans, on average, live to be almost 80, this…

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Research ties economic inequality to gap in life expectancy

By Michael A. Fletcher for the Washington Post – ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — This prosperous community is the picture of the good and ever longer life — just what policymakers have in mind when they say that raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare is a fair way to rein in the…

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Life Spans Shrink for Least-Educated Whites in the U.S.

By the New York Times – For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990. Researchers…

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