If you haven't read this Washington Post data analysis (no pay wall) comparing three adjacent counties in three different states, I recommend you give it a look.
The three states are Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and the counties are all rust belt areas along the south shore of Lake Erie.
The writers' conclusions are that the policy outcomes of the three states on public health topics — cigarette taxes, seat belt laws, and Medicaid coverage — have directly led to different death rates in the three counties. Ohio has been run by Republicans in both its legislature and governor's mansion since 1980; Pennsylvania has been somewhat split; and New York has been mostly run by Democrats.
Guess where people live the longest?
I won't keep you waiting: it's the county in New York, and it's not as if the people there are financially better off than in the other two. The demographics are similar across the three counties. Yet the New York people are 20% less likely to die by age 65 than the Ohio county's residents.
I remember when the Covid pandemic started, I found it hard to believe that Republicans didn't seem to believe in public health measures. I guess that was because in Minnesota they hadn't espoused those beliefs (aside from being against "socialized medicine") before the pandemic. But in other states, it appears to have been that way for a long time, long enough to lead to increased death rates from lung cancer and car crashes, all in the name of "liberty."
2 comments:
I remember going into a gas station somewhere in northern Ohio just a few years ago to buy snacks for the road and being astonished by the cigarette display — not just the size of it but the prominent presence of unfiltered Lucky Strikes and Pall Malls. I rarely see those anymore — the market is smaller and smaller (for obvious reasons). A strange reminder that I was no longer in Illinois.
Ashtabula is cursed.
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