The Deadly Game Republicans are Playing in Red States

Americans recently got some pretty grim news.

Life expectancy in the United States fell by nearly two years in 2020 to about 77 years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the sharpest drop compared to 21 other high-income countries, according to a global study.

That is what's happening on a national level. But researchers at Harvard University released a study this month that broke those numbers down by congressional district. Life expectancy across the U.S. varies by about 10 years.

A ten year discrepancy is a pretty big deal, so it is worth exploring the contributing factors. The Reuters article cited above discusses the impact of the pandemic. Charles Gaba has done yeoman's work in compiling data about the death rates from COVID in the bluest to reddest counties. Here's one of his latest charts:

The horizontal axis is the percentage of the vote Trump won in 2020 per county and the vertical axis is the number of COVID deaths per 100,000 residents. The redder the county, the more likely you are to have died from COVID. 

But obviously the discrepancies found in the Harvard study go beyond COVID. We need to look at other factors.

The Third Way recently reported on death rates due to murder and found that, on average, they were 40% higher in the 25 states Donald Trump won in the last presidential election compared to those that voted for Joe Biden. 

A lot of other factors affect life expectancy and show a similar pattern. For example, states with the lowest number of people under 65 who have health insurance include: Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, Georgia, and Florida. 

When comparing cost, accessibility, and outcomes on health care, the worst states include: Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

States with the highest poverty rates include: Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Arkansas. 

When measuring both educational attainment and the quality of education, states that rank the lowest include: Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. 

One measure that breaks what appears to be a consistent pattern is the percentage of deaths due to drug/alcohol poisoning or suicide. On that measure, the top five states include: West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Kentucky. It's also worth taking a look at the bottom fives states, which include: California, Nebraska, Texas, Iowa, and Mississippi. The differences are pretty dramatic, with at least twice as many deaths per 100,000 in the top five as compared to the bottom five. 

Obviously being a border state is not a major contributor (as many right wingers would suggest) nor is there a clear red/blue state divide. The biggest contributor is likely deaths related to opioid abuse, which are driven by overprescription. 

The overall picture that emerges from all of this (other than that last data point) is that both life expectancy and the various factors that contribute to higher mortality rates are worse in many red states - especially those that once made up the southern confederacy. But Republicans in those states are spending their time persecuting gay kids, banning books, and outlawing abortion. As a result, people are literally dying sooner than they need to.