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Much of the higher death rate in the USA is borne by the poor. The cost for the median person might be different than assuming the death rate is uniform.

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The US has higher mortality rates across the entire income distribution, except at the very top

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Interesting way of seeing it.

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Brilliant post John. And your post demonstrates it is feasible to create an overall health and economic well-being index which would be an improvement on GDP or NNI. And adding in the value of leisure, household production and education would make for an even more useful index. Only need to have a good way of estimating the value of environmental and social capital, and with a good equity adjustment and we have a comprehensive wellbeing index.

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