In the 1950s the Unit­ed States had among the low­est mor­tal­i­ty rates and high­est life expectan­cy in the world. Today, oth­er rich nations and quite a num­ber of poor ones have bet­ter health out­comes than Amer­i­cans. Why? How can the U.S., prob­a­bly the wealth­i­est coun­try in his­to­ry do so poor­ly? Start­ing with Rea­gan in the 1980s and the fer­vent embrace of neolib­er­al eco­nom­ics by the rul­ing class we’ve seen an over­all decline in health and life expectan­cy along with huge gaps in income. The caus­es of our inequal­i­ty and sub­se­quent poor health indices are polit­i­cal, thus reme­dies must also be polit­i­cal. As Dr. Bezruch­ka says, ​“Our future work needs to focus on expos­ing ways in which ram­pant social injus­tice affects not just our eco­nom­ic well-being but also our prospects for a healthy life. Inequal­i­ty,” he says, ​“kills!”