Can I make it? › Health
Can I afford to stay healthy, and is it safe out there?
Care, cost, and the environment we live in, what the numbers say.
We cover more people than ever, and still live shorter, sicker lives than every peer nation. Care you can't afford to use, mental-health help that often isn't there, and an environment that's quietly become both a wallet issue and a health one: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the heat we take are all now measured risks.
Can I afford to get sick?
8%
Uninsured rate
Down from 16% in 2010, the lowest on record, though costs still bite.
Are we living longer?
78.4
Yrs, behind every peer nation
U.S. life expectancy trails other rich countries by 4–5 years and stalled.
Can I get mental-health help?
~50%
With mental illness got no care
Half of adults with a mental illness received no treatment in the past year.
Ready for the next pandemic?
76/100
Readiness score, “none prepared”
The U.S. scored highest in the world, yet the index concluded no country is ready.
Are 'deaths of despair' rising?
2×
Overdose, suicide, and alcohol deaths have roughly doubled per capita since 2008.
Is the world around us getting riskier?
Disaster costs / yr (2020s vs 1980s)$149B
Home insurance vs inflation+8.7%
States expecting water shortages40 / 50
Are we switching to clean energy?
~23%
Renewables' share of U.S. electricity: rising, but slowly relative to demand.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the heat we take
Not a debate about the climate, just what the environment is doing to our bodies, measured by federal and independent scientists, the same for everyone.
Is the air safe to breathe?
156M
Nearly half of us (46%) live where the air earns a failing grade for soot or smog, the stuff that sets off asthma and strains the heart.
Is my tap water clean?
45%
The first nationwide federal test found PFAS “forever chemicals,” linked to cancer, in nearly half of America's tap water.
Is the heat turning deadly?
2,325
Heat killed more Americans in 2023 than in any year in four decades, and the toll has more than doubled since 1999. Researchers say the true number is far higher.
What the Numbers Are Saying
- ›Coverage is the win: the uninsured rate is at a record low.
- ›But Americans die younger than people in every peer nation, and 'deaths of despair' have doubled.
- ›Half of people who need mental-health care don't get it.
- ›The environment is now a wallet issue: disaster costs, vanishing home insurance, and water shortages are all measured and rising.
- ›It's a health issue too: nearly half of us breathe failing-grade air, nearly half of tap water carries 'forever chemicals,' and heat deaths have more than doubled since 1999.
- ›On the next pandemic, 'best in the world' still wasn't 'ready.'
We cover more people than ever, and still live shorter, riskier lives than our peers.
Figures real; tap any source to open it.