U.S. life expectancy is, surprisingly enough, on the rise. According to a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Americans can expect to live 80.4 years in 2050, up from 78.3 years in 2022.
But it’s rising even more in other countries. In 2050, the United States is projected to rank 66th out of 204 countries and territories, down from 49th today.
The Left tends to blame our lack of universal health coverage for this downtrend. But our lagging life expectancy is largely a function of cultural issues, such as drug overdoses and obesity. And those are social challenges over which health insurance has little sway.
Consider deaths from drug overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdoses and other unintentional injuries are America’s third-leading cause of death. In 2022, more than 107,000 people in the United States died from drug overdoses.
According to the IHME study, drug-related mortality soared 878% between 1990 and 2021, rising from 2.0 deaths per 100,000 people to 19.5 deaths per 100,000 people. Mortality from drugs is on track to increase another 34% between 2022 and 2050, to 26.7 deaths per 100,000.
“That’s the highest drug use-related mortality rate in the world and more than twice as high as the second-highest country, which is Canada,” the IHME researchers wrote. Simply reducing the drug-related mortality rate could result in 1.2 million fewer deaths from 2022 to 2050.
Obesity is another silent killer. If the United States successfully reduced high body mass index and high blood sugar levels, it could save 1.4 million lives between 2022 and 2050, according to the IHME study.
That goal is still far off. Three-quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. Unless something changes, nearly 260 million people will be overweight or obese in 2050.
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Gun violence and car crashes also set us apart from our peer countries. In 2022, more than 42,000 people in the United States died due to car crashes — and more than 48,000 due to firearms. America has the highest car crash death rate of 29 high-income countries, according to data from 2019.
Drug overdoses, the widening obesity epidemic, and other cultural factors have an outsize impact on American life expectancy. But they’re largely the product of individuals’ choices, not a lack of universal health coverage.
Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and a Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter 2020). Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @sallypipes.