- U.S. Life Expectancy Will Soon Be on Par with Mexico's and the Czech Republic's Washington Post by Lenny Bernstein—Life expectancy at birth will continue to climb substantially for residents of industrialized nations—but not in the United States, where minimal gains will soon put life spans on par with those in Mexico and the Czech Republic, according to an extensive analysis released Tuesday. The reasons for the United States' lag are well known. It has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any of the countries in the study, and the highest obesity rate. It is the only one without universal health insurance coverage and has the "largest share of unmet health-care needs due to financial costs," the researchers wrote.
- Fatal Drug Overdoses in U.S. on the Rise, CDC Says Stat by Andrew Joseph—Fatal drug overdoses continued their depressing climb in 2015, while the opioid crisis shifts from taking lives with painkillers like oxycodone to more lethal compounds like heroin and fentanyl, new data released Friday show. Overall, the rate of fatal overdoses from all drugs has increased more than 2.5 times since 1999, rising from 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people then to 16.3 deaths in 2015, according to the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
