[messo]

> I'm curious whether you believe lack of affordable health care in the US causes a lot of death from diseases of despair

There are several underlying causes leading to deaths of despair in the first place; sudden job loss (largely due to automation) [1] I think is a big one–and as you point out– an increase in loneliness and a lack of societal cohesion in general. The fact that 70,237 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2017 alone [2] just boggles my mind, and there is no reason to believe that this trend has slowed down the last few years.

Without readily available (mental) health care or strong social security, there is next to nothing that protects people that are out of a job (in areas where the economy is winding down) from a downward spiral.

[1] https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/29/news/economy/us-manufacturi... (2016) https://futurism.com/new-chart-proves-automation-serious-thr... (2017)

[2] https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/o...