A Drop in Mortality Is Stale News
The New York Times reported that a drop in mortality in Massachusetts not seen elsewhere can be attributed to its adoption of mandatory health care coverage:
The death rate in Massachusetts dropped significantly after it adopted mandatory health care coverage…offering evidence that the country’s first experiment with universal coverage…has saved lives… In contrast, the mortality rate in a group of counties similar to Massachusetts in other states was largely unchanged.
Implying causality based on this evidence is misleading in several ways as discussed here. In particular, I take fault with mentioning mortality reductions only in locations with mandatory health care coverage even though mortality has been dropping throughout the United States and the world since at least the 1960s. According to the World Bank, American males’ mortality rate has dropped by 3.6 percent between 2000 and 2007—a greater rate over a shorter time period than covered in this study. Over the same period, American females’ mortality rate has dropped by close to four percent.
The mortality rate is dropping, on average, throughout the United States, yet only Massachusetts adopted the mandatory health care law. Therefore, we may conclude that reductions in death rates happen for many reasons that do not restrict human freedom. One possible cause is new technologies that inform and enable proactive people to improve their health, ushered in through greater economic freedom. Check out Cato’s new website, HumanProgress.org, to see more positive changes to our health that are highly correlated with liberty.
