US Death Of Despair Rate: Middle-Aged White Americans Mortality Rate Increasing, Earning Loss Major Cause

Middle-aged white Americans mortality rate is spiking in an alarming rate. The Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project speaker said that people are dying when they should not be.

The Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project reported that the main causes of death among Caucasians aged 45 to 54 include opioid use, suicide and chronic liver disease. The mortality rate among while middle-aged blacks and Hispanics, on the other hand, have steadily declined. Between the years 1999 to 2014, Caucasians of the same age group recorded a mortality rate increase of almost 10 percent.

The United States increasing mortality rate among the middle-aged individuals is directly connected to earning loss, the Wall Street Journal reported. Numerous economists are warning people of what has been perceived as an ancestral public health problem. According to these experts, the truth is that it needs reevaluation of self-awareness from early education up to how the federal government distributes Social Security checks.

A Princeton economist Anne Case called the fatality the death of despair, where men and women whose highest attainment of education is a high school degree or less are being clobbered the most.

Economists agree that the wealthier portion of the population are getting a bigger share of Social Security benefits. The poorer Americans, on the other hand, have to retire earlier as well as receive smaller checks; hence, do not get the full Social Security benefits.

The diverging mortality rate makes the wealthier Americans reap a greater share of the Social Security pie, while poorer Americans have to tap it earlier. According to economists, this should force the US to implement changes that would also benefit low earners, the Atlantic reported.

James Mark, pediatrician and executive vice president of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also stated that the essentials to decreasing mortality starts with increasing funds for early childhood development such as preschool programs and nursing visits to low income mothers.