[topaz0]

I think you'd be surprised by how many of those deaths would have been preventable by earlier healthcare access. Just medicaid expansion reduced all-cause mortality rates by about 3% on average, compared to non-expansion states. That's all-cause mortality of the whole population, not just among the people on medicaid.

Of course you're right that it would be much more effective to eliminate poverty than to just provide healthcare. For example that would do a lot for the "healthy eating and living" that you mention. But providing healthcare would certainly help.