NEW YORK — Wealthy Americans live as many as 15 years longer than the nation’s poor, according to a new study on inequality in the U.S. health care system.
“Widening economic inequality in the USA has been accompanied by increasing disparities in health outcomes,” the researchers write. “Almost every chronic condition, from stroke to heart disease and arthritis, follows a predictable pattern of rising prevalence with declining income.”
Widening gaps of income have caused widening gaps of health inequity since the 1970s, the study explained. It also warned of a coming health-poverty trap unless strategic intervention happens, according to The Christian Post.
The study, “Inequality and the health-care system in the USA,” was published in The Lancet, a health care journal. (TAB)
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