28,600 Lives Per Year
How much mortality in the U.S. will increase if the Senate passes its health-care bill, according to a new analysis
A professional acquaintance was complaining to me last week about her indolent husband. Apparently he lives mostly on their couch, and his hobbies are eating and drinking. He eats decently when she cooks, but otherwise it’s Doritos and Mountain-Dew-type bedlam. There’s nothing he can do about all that, he says. This is how he was born to be.
I wondered why she was telling me this.
Her point was that several years ago he developed diabetes, and he became the perfect patient, in terms of showing up for, which can help control his blood sugar. But he didn’t do anything to change his lifestyle—meaning eating well and moving. If anything, he got worse on those fronts.
