UK healthy life expectancy gap between rich and poor widens

Martin McKee43

We’ve ( @lucindahiam.bsky.social @dannydorling.bsky.social ) been pointing out for years that 🇬🇧 has a health crisis. e.g. we showed how we tumbled down the global rankings throughout the reign of the late Queen journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Steve Atkins36

I have a suspicion that stress, shit processed food and poisoning our natural environment plays a part!

Sally Longford36

In my early working life I was responsible for collecting for retirement gifts and also wreaths in a large industrial department. I was often horrified by the short time between the two collections, particularly for manual workers. We are going back to this & it suits the capitalist system

Catio Miles35

Well, since 2020 we can’t retire to sunnier, warmer places with better food and in fact many had to return from those locations. #Brexit

Buck Frexit33

And Farage wants to make it so that if you can’t afford it, you get no healthcare, making this much worse. No thanks.

Sweet Teasel33

It feels like the UK is going backwards to Victorian era levels of inequality. Redistribution of wealth & greater investment in public services is needed desperately

The grip of private equity on the UK economy , second largest globally after the US .

Russell England 26

Children are also shorter in the UK than Europe due to austerity From 2023

Lynn O'K20

For comparison, in Ireland it has dropped during covid, but is stabilising, and 6 years higher than the UK.

Anaideia20

I wonder if there is a generation that sees their state pension on the distant horizon, sees that it is increasingly unlikely to sustain them, and has no significant private pension. So, work then die, skip the retirement part.

Andrew Sharpe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿|🇪🇺17

Scotland already has "a new strategy to address economic and health inequalities". It's called independence.

Martandelus (Cheez)16

I want you guys to connect the dots here... Why else is the media happily talking about doing away with state pensions? Why does the media talk about "population growth"? Why is everything designed to be so stressful now? Why were we told to gobble every disease known to man? Kerching...

Mazzerooni … -16

Wait until the NHS is fully privatised

Stephen Barlow14

Thank you for saying this George. The whole problem discussing neoliberalism, is that the lying neoliberals, deny neoliberalism exists and it is a left wing conspiracy theory. But facts like this, expose the deep Orwellian lies about what has been happening. 1/2

Sir Basil12

Surely just a manifestation of our long term creep to the right playing out.....the Devil is indeed taking the hindmost

Kathleenna11

The US is on the same trajectory. Might surpass UK as we are being held hostage by a Fascist Felon, his corrupt Scotus, and insatiable Billionaires.

David Bruce 🇳🇬🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿10

I recall a day, 2007ish, there was a feelgood article at the end of news bulletins - more of us could expect to live to 100. Hurrah! That, I believe is the origin of ukgov austerity - to ensure that doesn’t happen. The rich see every penny spent on pensions and benefits as a penny they can’t steal.

Grace Hurford PhD10

Erm despite the article stating it’s not Covid the figures go off a cliff since 2020. Seems hard to believe this isn’t a factor 🤔

Monty Dodge10

Some of the things that made me feel ill. bsky.app/profile/mont...

Joy9

Also the move from buying fresh food at butchers, greengrocers, fishmongers etc to buying it all at supermarkets is huge. Most have even removed fresh food counters & now everything is prepacked & therefore full of ultra processed ingredients to make them last. It also makes them more profit.

The Lady Lucy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺🇬🇱🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐾🐕9

14 years, at least, of underfunding in the NHS?

Looking at the stars9

I wonder whether the chronic underfunding of the NHS and (particularly) social care are drivers in the mix.

Ann Marie Connolly 8

Decline coincided with Tory extensive austerity measures. All public services are now threadbare. Local authority budgets were redirected to wealthier areas and made inequalities worse. Decline started around 2014 and has not stopped. Brexit makes it worse. Outcome of ideology & voted for by people.

Kath M Cymru8

So, while the healthy life expectancy is falling, the pension age is rising. 🤔 Throw in Farage's desire for an 'insurance based' healthcare system. We better keep Reform out or we are screwed.

Dave8

And yet the most popular political party in the UK currently would abolish the NHS. Large numbers seem to revel in their ill-health.

Jill Houlbrook6

No mystery it’s reflection of what this society has become over the years. The wealth of our nation is increasingly held in the hands of the powerful for whom it has become a weapon. We only have to look to USA to see where we are heading. It’s us the people with the power to stop the rot.

anty41.bsky.social6

And systematic destruction/sell off of the NHS

seacide6

This isn't surprising. It's perfectly consistent with predictions, unfortunately. Regardless of effects of the pandemic we're still in, divesting from society, especially NHS and promoting poverty, has conspired with unhealthy lifestyles, poor diets and pollution. The neoliberal exposome is deadly.

kevindunn.bsky.social5

Healthy life expectancy below state pension age is the very definition of "work till you drop".

Nualaatpeace4

Successive unfit governance. Corruption instead of people. NHS corruption. Privatisation in all our services. Profiteering 💯

AdyBee 🐝4

The Establishment WANT people to die. You can’t argue with demography. #FallingBirthRates #SizeMatters #Boomers #Pensions #BoiledFrog

OhNo!NotHimAgain3

The quality of our 'fresh' fruit & veg has declined dramatically since Brexit. Supermarkets are sourcing more from countries beyond the EU. Add in disease problems, notably oranges & bananas, caused by climate change & increased travel times. By the time food reaches our homes it's barely edible.

jamiecrock.bsky.social3

The rich get richer and the poor die!

cheryldb.bsky.social2

The age of retirement will still be increased though.

Alan Chedzoy2

The report is complex and would need close examination to unravel the causes of the difference in say Norway at the top and the UK. The last bullet point under "key points" talks about putting health on a par with economic growth which implies you cant have one without the other which I'd challenge.

Stevie2

Who is paying the Ferryman? It certainly isn’t the well off as poverty and disease claim only the poor.

isoma2

"The gap between the most and least deprived deciles in England is now 19.4 years for males and 20.3 years for females." That's the big challenge.

Kittie 🖤🦝2

The social safety net of UC is definitionally destitution. If you end up on this due to illness you get trapped just keeping your head above water every day as it rises incrementally. You don’t have the emotional or practical resources for recovery

cb24resident.bsky.social4

And suicides have doubled since austerity. The government is fucking killing us. We’re starving to death. Killing ourselves. Being evicted. Freezing with no heating.

PeteGulls3

Years of Tory neglect. A truly shocking article.

Iris Cook3

Correction Brexit is excelling the speed

Bob Medley3

In the most deprived areas in Scotland healthy life expectancy is only 44. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Karen by name not nature! 📎 🦋2

As a community nurse providing care to housebound patients I see this. Our patients are younger and sicker.