The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02474-9

by geox • 2 months ago

51 31 2 months ago

nature.com

adampunk• 2 months ago

Oh well.

fridder• 2 months ago

Just reading the abstract makes me think of the phrase: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

janalsncm• 2 months ago

Seems like causality might be reversed here. People become more politically conservative the more jaded they become with the healthcare system.

grahamburger• 2 months ago

Many people in the US become more liberal as they become more jaded by the (for-profit) healthcare system.

forgetfreeman2• 2 months ago

Through what mechanism does dissatisfaction with our for-profit healthcare system lead to support for eg. expansionist foreign wars or aggressive policing policies?

add-sub-mul-div• 2 months ago

Fear of pronouns.

pjc50• 2 months ago

Isn't it just that they're in the Republican misinformation ecosystem?

This because extreme over COVID. A particular low point was Herman Cain's Twitter account doing COVID denial while, and after, the man died of COVID.

zzgo3• 2 months ago

They posthumously named The Herman Cain Award after him. https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

ajross• 2 months ago

That's misunderstanding the paper. The correlation here is with outcomes, not support. Republicans may very well be more "jaded" with the healthcare system. But that doesn't explain why they die early.

fabian2k• 2 months ago

Why would that make you more conservative? Republicans don't have any answers to fix the US healthcare system. It would be far more plausible that someone that experienced the failure of the health care system would vote for a populist position here, and for healthcare the more convincing populist position is certainly the left one.

leereeves• 2 months ago

The current healthcare system was mostly shaped by Democrats with the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called Obamacare) at a time when Democrats held a filibuster proof majority.

PearlRiver• 2 months ago

How do you become jaded with something you do not have access to? Has universal healthcare ever been tried in the US?

robocat• 2 months ago

Would need to affect reproduction for Darwinian effects to matter.

Encourage deathly extreme sports for kids/teens/20s/30s? Need more hysteric ball betting.

Build up the belief of rewards in afterlife - vergings towards other religions?

Win by playing a long game.

Glyptodon2• 2 months ago

I suspect this is probably more complicated. My family members who live in small towns and rural areas have been having larger health issues and more trouble getting care even if they want to for years if not decades compared to my relatives who live in major urban areas, and particularly those who live in more affluent areas. Like I'd go so far as to estimate that affluent areas metro adjacent are +7 years vs. non-affluent metro areas, which are also like +7 years vs. rural/small town areas or slum/poor metro areas. But I also think the kind of care and non-care my relatives in smaller/rural areas leads to exhaustion, loss of faith in the system, and interest in alternative options.

But I also don't doubt that adding the modern conservative delusions and paranoia on top of it all only worsens everything.

johnea3• 2 months ago

It's well documented that healthcare providers in rural US are diminishing, and yet, they continue to vote for right wing candidates.

It is important to point out though, that the last opportunity to establish single-payer healthcare in the US was prevented by the democratic party.

The famous Hillary quote: "Single payer is off the table"

This is why the RNC has hated on the Clintons so much, and especially Hillary: they were muscling in on republican turf.

tzs• 2 months ago

It is important to point out though, that the last opportunity to establish single-payer healthcare in the US was prevented by the democratic party

It is only (possibly) important to point that out if single-payer healthcare is necessary for an affordable, high quality, universal healthcare system.

That is clearly not the case since there are several examples of first world countries with such systems that are not single-payer, such as Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

antonvs2• 2 months ago

The famous Hillary quote: "Single payer is off the table"

Her point was that getting that passed would be politically unrealistic at the time, and she was almost certainly correct.

Your framing is either ignorant or deliberately deceptive.

defrost• 2 months ago

Of interest to that point:

The Unlucky Country: Life expectancy and health in regional and remote Australia (2023) - https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2023-0...

  Life expectancy in Far West NSW is almost six years lower than in Sydney, with the divide getting worse.
  Those in the Far West are twice as likely to die prematurely compared to those in Sydney, and ‘potentially avoidable’ deaths are two and a half times more likely.
  Suicide is twice as likely for residents in the Far West, with rates trending up.

Why Australia? -

* Sidesteps the US Dem V Rep preconceptions.

* Highlights Rural V. Urban resource differences.

* Similar Political division in that AU regional tends more conservative (by AU standards) than AU urban.

It's absolutely multi factor, but likely more strongly tied to health assets, funding, and reach of public messaging than to political leanings (although asset distribution, funding, and messaging policy are, of course, tied to politics).

Arodex2• 2 months ago

Republicans like to throw around "FAFO" to justify their cruelty.

Well, Republicans, FAFO.

kj4211cash• 2 months ago

The Southern Strategy destroyed the GOP as we knew it. It is now the party of dumb. Say that and you get accused of being elitist, but it's the truth. You can win elections as the party of dumb. But, man, it's tough being dumb in the USA today. There's so much misinformation and marketing of harmful products.

Yizahi• 2 months ago

Over here, far far away from USA, we have a joke story about a certain type of person, who finds a jinni lamp. Jinn tells that person that he can fulfill any single wish of his, but the caveat is that person's neighbor will get twice as much of the same thing. And the person responds with "gouge one of my eyes". And that's basically a tale of healthcare in some countries. "I will suffer some, but at least "those" people will suffer more!".

The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA

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