Avoidable deaths up in U.S., falling in other high-income nations
Rates of deaths that could be prevented or treated have risen across every U.S. state in recent decades, according to a new study.
At the same time, rates of the so-called avoidable deaths — which encompass deaths that could have been avoided through prevention or public health as well deaths that could have been avoided with timely, effective medical care — have been improving in other high-income countries. In those nations, health spending was linked to lower avoidable death rates, but not in the U.S., according to the March 24 JAMA Internal Medicine study.
Researchers looked at rates of avoidable deaths from 2009 to 2021, ranking America’s overall increase in avoidable deaths just below Bulgaria and above Turkey.
U.S. deaths varied widely by state, ranging from an increase of 4.9 per 100,000 in New York to 99.6 per 100,000 in West Virginia, which has had one of the nation’s highest rates of deaths from both COVID-19 and opioid overdoses. Increases in avoidable death rates were also on the low end in Idaho, California and Washington and the high end in New Mexico, Mississippi and Ohio.
From 2019 to 2021 — the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — avoidable deaths increased in all 40 nations in the study. U.S. states and countries that had the highest avoidable deaths before the pandemic also experienced the greatest increases during the COVID-19 period, the study found.
The findings call into question the efficiency of U.S. health spending, according to the researchers, who were associated with Brown and Harvard universities.
Hispanic homeowners, communities face escalating climate risks
Hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather hazards disproportionately harm Hispanic households in the U.S., a new research report finds.
About 23% of Hispanic homeowners live in areas at high risk for climate-related disasters, compared to 16% of total U.S. homeowners, according to the March 19 report from the Urban Institute.
Hurricanes present the greatest danger, with Hispanic homeowners more likely to live in high-risk areas and experience greater losses from the storms, which are increasing in strength because of human-caused climate change. Wildfires also pose significant risks for Hispanic residents in the western U.S., particularly in California and Arizona.
Hispanic households are less likely to have adequate insurance to protect their homes from weather-related damage, making it harder for families to recover afterward.
Report authors recommended improving insurance affordability, expanding outreach and education, and promoting resilient community development, among other measures.
Low-premium health plans often come with high out-of-pocket expenses
Consumers may be attracted to insurance plans that carry low premiums for health coverage, but a new issue brief says those plans often come with high deductibles.
Published March 19 by the Commonwealth Fund, the brief examined plans available through the federal health insurance marketplace, which was established under the Affordable Care Act to allow low-income Americans to be able to purchase comprehensive, lower-cost coverage.
The plans generally have lower premiums than insurance purchased elsewhere, with participants contributing as much as 23% less than people covered by employer-sponsored health coverage. Consumers can choose from a tier of options, with platinum-level plans paying for 90% of a participant’s health costs and bronze plans paying 60%. The former comes with low deductibles, and the latter with high ones.
On average, silver-plan deductibles typically exceed $5,000, while bronze plans approach $7,500, the brief said. That amount is about a fifth of annual income for those at 250% of the U.S. poverty level — about $39,000 in 2025 — making it hard for low-income participants to afford health care services under the plan.
Other recent public health news of note includes:
• Black infants and children have double the risk of death than their white peers, according to a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Inequities in deaths between Black and white children have remained steady since 1950, the research found.
• While recent guidelines have increased lung cancer screenings in the U.S., rates still lag for rural and uninsured people, who have worse access to care, a study in JAMA Oncology finds.
• A new study in BMJ Public Health finds people from disadvantaged backgrounds suffer longer from COVID-19 symptoms. Education level, financial stability and where people live played a role in whether they had recovered from the disease more than a year after infection.
• Rising energy bills and dangerously high indoor temperatures from climate change worsen health risks for vulnerable households, a new study in One Earth finds.
• Dementia risk is higher for people who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, according to new research published March 26 in Neurology. Factors such as income, employment, education and disability played a role.
• Chewing gum can release microplastics into people’s mouths, says new research presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society on March 25. Researchers found that chewing a single large piece of gum can release up to 3,000 plastic particles.
• The U.S. Justice Department is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a March 17 court decision that orders the Trump administration to reinstate more than 16,000 employees. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued that plaintiffs in the case, who include AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Government Employees, lacked standing to challenge the government.
• Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Product Safety Commission, arguing that a 2024 order from the agency that named the retailer legally responsible for the safety of the products it sells is unconstitutional.
• The Trump administration will be shutting down the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice as part of reorganizing at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to news reports. As of December, 20 million people in the U.S. had been diagnosed with the condition, which can come with fatigue, brain fog, joint pain and other symptoms that can interfere with worker performance.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released an online tool March 20 that allows users to look up allowable chemical contaminant levels in food. Contaminant types in the tool include pesticides, mycotoxins and radionuclides.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.