Life expectancy and wealth in the United States
Reporting on a study comparing U.S. and European longevity by wealth shows even richer Americans living shorter lives than many European peers, with striking death-rate gaps at similar wealth levels.
Why it matters: if high wealth does not buy European-level survival in the United States, the problem is larger than individual savings or personal medicine.
Check the NEJM-linked comparisons summarized in the post. The editorial take is that U.S. institutions and environments suppress longevity across the wealth distribution.
Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds
The US top quartile of non-housing wealth has the same effect of life expectancy as about the 30th percentile of Western Europe. See NEJM study of 12 years of people at age 65 plus/minus.
Our median was a bit better than Poland. Our median wealth was the same as Netherlands, our death rate however was 4.6 times higher (per 1000 person years). The ratio between low and high wealth was 117x in the USA, it was only 9x in the Netherlands. LS
The top quartile in the USA had nearly the same death rate at 10 years as the lowest quartile of Northern/Western Europe. LS