

Discover more from The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David Introcaso
The Unrecognized Tragedy of Working Class Immiseration (December 31st)
I'll end 2021 by noting my most recent essay published in STAT News this past Wednesday. It's titled, "Deaths of Despair: The Unrecognized Tragedy of Working Class Immiseration."
It opens with: "Given the socioeconomic effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it should have come as no surprise that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2021, a 28.5% increase over the prior year. Most of these deaths were attributed to the use of synthetic opioids by middle-aged white men. The question immediately begged is: What is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) doing about these so-called deaths of despair? The answer is sobering."