Bernie Sanders commissioned a federal study in 2016 that showed that poorer Americans die younger [View all]

The rich live longer and the wealth gap among older households is growing

A new federal report puts the stakes of rising income and wealth inequality in terms of life and death: Poorer Americans are dying younger than richer Americans.

While average life expectancy has overall risen in the United States, people with lower incomes tend to have shorter lives than those with higher incomes, a study from the Government Accountability Office, commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016, found. About 74 percent of Americans in the top fifth percentile of mid-career wealth lived into their 70s and 80s, whereas only 52 percent of adults in the bottom fifth lived that long. The study found that disparities in income and wealth among older households have become greater over the past three decades.

“If we do not urgently act to solve the economic distress of millions of Americans, a whole generation will be condemned to early death,” Sanders said in a statement.

The study is yet another data point in a vast field of research around the impacts of inequality. As Vox’s Julia Belluz has reported, there are several studies on the life expectancy gap and income, and mortality rates and education attainment, that have all reached this same well-established conclusion: Being poor is a health risk in the United States.

https://www.vox.com/2019/9/10/20857668/life-expectancy-wealth-gap-bernie-sanders