Opti
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Post by Opti on Sept 21, 2012 12:51:52 GMT -5
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49114733/ns/us_news-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. The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance. The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs. By 2008, life expectancy for black women without a high school diploma had surpassed that of white women of the same education level, the study found. The decline among the least educated non-Hispanic whites, who make up a shrinking share of the population, widened an already troubling gap. The latest estimate shows life expectancy for white women without a high school diploma was 73.5 years, compared with 83.9 years for white women with a college degree or more. For white men, the gap was even bigger: 67.5 years for the least educated white men compared with 80.4 for those with a college degree or better. The dropping life expectancies have helped weigh down the United States in international life expectancy rankings, particularly for women. In 2010, American women fell to 41st place, down from 14th place in 1985, in the United Nations rankings. Among developed countries, American women sank from the middle of the pack in 1970 to last place in 2010, according to the Human Mortality Database. I find this depressing but perhaps some people are excited to see poor people dying off earlier and not being able to be a drain on Medicare for very long.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:18:43 GMT -5
while it's unfortunate, you can't force people to take care of themselves.
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Post by BeenThere...DoneThat... on Sept 21, 2012 13:21:19 GMT -5
while it's unfortunate, you can't force people to take care of themselves. ...yet...
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 21, 2012 13:21:28 GMT -5
Maybe by the time I'm elderly our country will have a more balanced and compasionate attitude towards end of life care. Please, please don't keep me alive via every drug you can when my quality of life sucks monkey ass.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:22:39 GMT -5
Maybe by the time I'm elderly our country will have a more balanced and compasionate attitude towards end of life care. Please, please don't keep me alive via every drug you can when my quality of life sucks monkey ass. When i'm terminal, give me the cocktail. Antifreeze, vodka, and crushed tylenol. Put an umbrella in it, a few maraschino cherries, and say goodnight.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 21, 2012 13:29:14 GMT -5
Absolutely..I'm all for that end of life. I want to go out on MY terms, not someone else's.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Sept 21, 2012 13:36:43 GMT -5
I think the increase in smoking might be part of it but I think so is this:
This group also has less access to health care than before. The share of working-age adults with less than a high school diploma who did not have health insurance rose to 43 percent in 2006, up from 35 percent in 1993, according to Mr. Jemal at the American Cancer Society. Just 10 percent of those with a college degree were uninsured last year, the Census Bureau reported.
I guess I'm the only one so far who is sad we are now 41th in the world for life expectancy for women.
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greenstone
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Post by greenstone on Sept 21, 2012 13:37:00 GMT -5
Not to be insensitive but ...
While I was reading this the image of Honey Boo Boo's mother was going through my head and I couldn't help thinking that an average of 73.5 is pretty impressive.
Drugs, smokes, and overeating aren't cheap. I bet that money would go a long ways paying for basic/preventive health care.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:38:22 GMT -5
It is sad, but I think it's more than access to health care.
A lot of these women are fat, smoking, drug abusers. They are going to die earlier than average.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 13:41:32 GMT -5
Actually, eating junk is often much cheaper than eating well, particularly for inner city poor. Actually, this thread makes me a little ...
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Sept 21, 2012 13:42:49 GMT -5
Don't worry Thyme, I got your back. 60 and done, I'll make sure.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 13:42:54 GMT -5
It is sad, but I think it's more than access to health care. A lot of these women are fat, smoking, drug abusers. They are going to die earlier than average. Or as Gumps' mom would say, stupid is as stupid does.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:43:25 GMT -5
Exactly.
I deal with this population at work, except they're rural poor, not urban poor. I have no idea how to change this. They know being fat is bad, they know smoking is bad for you, they know that drugs are bad for you, but they do it anyway.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:44:27 GMT -5
It is sad, but I think it's more than access to health care. A lot of these women are fat, smoking, drug abusers. They are going to die earlier than average. Or as Gumps' mom would say, stupid is as stupid does. I don't necessarily think they are stupid. I'm not sure what the deal is. They want immediate gratification? They don't have any hope? They don't know any better? They live like everyone else?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 13:45:22 GMT -5
Two of the three are physically addicting, the fast food is just plain good tasting. (answer to post #12 )
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 21, 2012 13:46:11 GMT -5
They do a lot of rural work here and are running into the same situation. It isn't as simple as riding into town and providing health care. They are finding that even with the offer of free health care many people don't show up.
Mich's mentioned several times that her dental school has a dental clinic on wheels that will do FREE dental screenings/cleanings for low income students and all teh parents have to do is sign the consent form. Less than 10% of the parents turn it in.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Sept 21, 2012 13:46:38 GMT -5
The correlation between poverty and poor health isn't always because of the poor person's choices. My mother's parents smoked multiple packs a day indoors. She didn't get adequate nutrition and she has a lot of back problems from doing manual labor in her childhood. She has never smoked a single cigarette yet she suffers from asthma. Yes, my mother's parents made poor choices, but she hasn't, at least not health wise.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:47:30 GMT -5
The County funds a travelling dental clinic that will treat the kids for free at their school. Again, less than 10% of the parents send in the permission slip.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 21, 2012 13:49:43 GMT -5
I think choices have to do with it, just like anything else. But the problem is much much more complex than anyone thought. Like my workplace found it isn't solely due to lack of access to affordable healthcare because when they come in with it, hardly anyone takes the offer.
The question is why?
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Sept 21, 2012 13:49:51 GMT -5
I think the poor uneducated typically have a crappy life and have lost hope in it getting any better. They are depressed and take gratification where they can get it. They figure their life sucks so why not eat what they want, smoke if they want, drink soda all day, etc.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 21, 2012 13:51:32 GMT -5
But if you tied their welfare check to their kids dental health, they'd do it.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:52:36 GMT -5
But if you tied their welfare check to their kids dental health, they'd do it. a lot of these people are working poor and don't get much in the way of welfare.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 13:53:33 GMT -5
The County funds a travelling dental clinic that will treat the kids for free at their school. Again, less than 10% of the parents send in the permission slip. That problem exists with the free health clinic here. A lot of people are either too scared to go or are in denial. One woman showed up with breast cancer so advanced that half her breasts were eaten away. She thought she would get better on her own. She died 5 weeks later in hospice care. Education level might have a lot to do with it.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 21, 2012 13:53:59 GMT -5
They might sign the form for the free dental bus but that doesn't mean that they are going to enforce dental health at home or take the kid to the dentist when problems arise before the next free dental bus visit.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 21, 2012 13:54:32 GMT -5
Then send in the darn slip! How can you not give a rats ass about the children you have? I'd have sure taken free care for my kids if it had been offered. Instead I paid for it. It's part of the responsibility of having children.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Sept 21, 2012 13:55:04 GMT -5
I think choices have to do with it, just like anything else. But the problem is much much more complex than anyone thought. Like my workplace found it isn't solely due to lack of access to affordable healthcare because when they come in with it, hardly anyone takes the offer. The question is why? My mothers parents didn't want anyone peering into their life and wouldn't have accepted free healthcare. They considered anything related to the government as a potential threat to their rights, parenting and possibly freedom. Obviously the experiences in one family in poverty don't reflect the experiences of all families in poverty, but I think that many poor believe they are more vulnerable in the legal system and fear that getting entangled with any system may expose them to it.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 21, 2012 13:55:22 GMT -5
Our school gives out free tooth brushes and toothpaste and how to use them even.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Sept 21, 2012 13:55:28 GMT -5
My DH never saw a dentist until he was a teen. It doesn't mean they didnt' love him, they just didn't realize how important dental health was.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 21, 2012 13:56:01 GMT -5
That's what Mich said her dental school is trying to figure out and that's what the medical center I work for is trying to figure out. If all you have to do is sign a form or show up WHY aren't people taking advantage of it?
There are lots of variables to it, the problem is getting all of them to fit together so you can come up with a solution.
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Driftr
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Post by Driftr on Sept 21, 2012 13:57:43 GMT -5
Maybe by the time I'm elderly our country will have a more balanced and compasionate attitude towards end of life care. Please, please don't keep me alive via every drug you can when my quality of life sucks monkey ass. You ever read the book Amsterdam by any chance? I read it years ago. Dealt with end of life issues in England I think.
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