U.S. life expectancy slipped as recession took hold

[Better Believe It]

All the more reason to increase the Social Security retirement age. Work until you drop dead .... if you can find a job. BBI

U.S. life expectancy slipped as recession took hold
Alzheimer's and suicides rose, but death rates for stroke, other diseases dropped
By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
msnbc.com
December 9, 2010

Life expectancy in the United States dropped in 2008, the first full year of a grueling recession that saw mixed effects, both good and bad, on the nation’s health, according to new government data.

Overall life expectancy fell to 77.8 years, down slightly from 77.9 in 2007, the year that the recession began, and below a record high of 78.1 years in 2006. In a country like the U.S., the drop is small but ominous, public health experts said.

“The decline in life expectancy is a wake-up call,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “It is a call for action.”

Death rates due to high blood pressure, chronic respiratory disease and suicide all rose in 2008, though health officials cautioned it’s still too early to tie those effects directly to the recession.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40578643/ns/health-aging

[RKP5637]

1. So, I guess if they raised SS and Medicare eligibility to 80, that would really cure the problem. nt

[Systematic Chaos]

2. And we ain't seen nothin' yet.

B-b-b-b-baby, we just ain't seen n-n-n-nothin' yet!

:bounce:

[jtown1123]

3. It'll get worse when Social Security is dismantled. People will either live in the streets

or will move into their children's homes (if they have them).

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Believe me, I know.

I'm presently on disability, and trying to do everything humanly possible to rehabilitate myself enough to where I will have at least some independence and a shot at survival.

I'm fully acclimated to the fact that we're pretty much on our own, or will be before much longer even if we might think we're "secure."

[RKP5637]

5. That's exactly their plan. Dismantle Social Security and then Medicare, and the

politicians, not all but many, will glow with pride as they see people on the streets, tent cities, dieing for lack of medical care and then they can be proud of their accomplishment of having gutted one of earth's great nations for greed. Those not seeing where this is headed really have their head up their butt.

And the youth better be damn concerned too. Hell, many people can't survive working now before retirement funding. How people think they will retire with no jobs, no savings, and possibly no SS and no Medicare is beyond me. Americans really need to wake up. This has become a severely F'ed up country. Most Americans are so damn apathetic they don't wake up unless if affects ME ME ME. Then when they do wake up and say WTF, it's too late.

[Brickbat]

6. This is what a death panel looks like.