[laurencerowe]

Median income is not much lower in Utah than in California. Utah's low healthcare spending per capita is likely a reflection of Utah having the lowest median age of any state. Most healthcare costs are spent on elderly people.

I should add though that life expectancy is affected at least as much by social policy as by healthcare spending. Much of the difference is a result of cars/guns/drugs killing more people earlier in life in the US than in Europe.

[trimethylpurine]

Doesn't seem like big correlation in this case. Violent crime rate is roughly double in California compared with Utah.

[laurencerowe]

While Utah has a lower homicide rate than California (2.2 vs 5.1 per 100k) like many rural states it has a much higher suicide rate (21.5 vs 10.1 per 100k). Accident mortality (mostly overdoses and car accidents) are similar (49.7 vs 51.1 per 100k).

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/homicide.html

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/suicide.html

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/accidents.html

More on the drivers of lower life expectancy in US here:

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/what-dr...

[trimethylpurine]

All really interesting stuff. Thanks.