The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that American life expectancy at birth declined for the second consecutive year in 2016. The decline was fueled by an astounding 21 percent rise in the death rate from drug overdoses. The U.S. has not seen two years of declining life expectancy since influenza caused an inordinate number of deaths in 1962 and 1963. There was also a one-year drop during the worst of the AIDS epidemic in 1993. This is a dismal sign for the U.S., which boasts some of the world’s highest spending on medical care, reports The Washington Post. It is also a sign of the toll the nation’s opioid crisis is exacting on younger and middle-aged citizens. More than 42,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses alone in 2016. This is a 28 percent increase over 2015.
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