US life expectancy drops again as opioid deaths and suicide rates rise
"The Real Governments of Blue America"
* The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reports that the life expectancy for a baby born in the U.S. in 2017 is 78.6 years old, the second time in three years it has posted a decline.
* The rate of drug overdose deaths jumped by 9.6 percent in 2017, with deaths attributed to synthetic opioids that are not methadone jumping by 45 percent.
* Suicides also increased, rising 3.7 percent.
Amelia Lucas Published 12:02 AM ET Thu, 29 Nov 2018 Updated 12:37 PM ET Thu, 29 Nov 2018
Erika Marble visits the gravesite of Edward Martin III, her fiance and the father of her two children, in Littleton, N.H., in 2016. The 28-year old died in 2014 of an overdose of the opioid fentanyl. (Jim Cole/AP)
By Editorial Board November 30, 2018
LIFE EXPECTANCY statistics are a significant barometer of a society’s health. They’re an indicator — a signal — of how the population is weathering all kinds of difficulty, from wars to disease to disasters, natural and man-made. For decades, life expectancy in the United States has been rising, as in other developed nations, a positive sign. But the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are alarming. Life expectancy overall in the United States fell for the second time in three years in 2017, driven largely by a surge in drug overdoses and suicide.
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