Life Expectancy is Decreasing: Investigating the U.S. Health Crisis

In 2013, a landmark report was released by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine showing that despite much higher spending on health care, the United States ranked lower than the peer country average on most major health domains, including life expectancy. What happened in the 10 years since this seminal work? Unfortunately, the situation has only worsened. On this episode of the Business Group on Health Podcast, we get an update from Dr. Steven Woolf, physician, epidemiologist, and professor who chaired the committee that produced “U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health” a decade ago. He tells us what’s happening to life expectancy here in the U.S., delves into root causes behind some of the statistics, and explores how companies, communities and policymakers can make an impact.

Guest: Steven Woolf, MD, Director Emeritus, Center on Society and Health and Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University

Thank you to today’s episode sponsor Big Health.