Ten Americas, Insurance Claims, and Domestic Violence and Hurricanes

Editor's Note

The COVID-19 pandemic widened disparities in U.S. life expectancy. Now, those differences are so large it is as if "the population lives in separate Americas instead of one," write CFR Bloomberg Chair in Global Health Thomas J. Bollyky, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Laura Dwyer-Lindgren and Ali H. Mokdad, and Research Associate Chloe Searchinger.

To kick off this week's issue, those authors explain their study published in the Lancet exploring how geography, race, and income shape the "Ten Americas." Among their findings, the authors note that the average life expectancy for American Indians and Alaska Natives—63.6 years—is more than two decades shorter than for Asian Americans.

Continuing the conversation on health equity, TGH Staff Editor Allison Krugman interviews researcher Alex Hoagland from the University of Toronto. The two discuss the relationship between insurance denials and patient demographics, noting that patients making $30,000 or less annually per household were 43% more likely to have their preventive care claims denied than the highest income group.

Next, Sabeeha Quereshi, the World Health Organization's regional emergency-preparedness-and-response coordinator, outlines the frequently overlooked environmental and health threats humanitarian workers face during their missions.

In a video feature, journalist Saqib Mugloo unpacks how climate change is driving up the number of lightning strikes in Jammu, India and the Kashmir region, which have increased from 65,666 in 2019 to 174,332 in 2022, and killed at least 20 people in 2023.

Also covering the dangers that extreme weather events pose, Mira Cheng, medical student at Stanford University, describes the link between hurricanes and gender-based violence. She emphasizes that the number of women killed in domestic violence incidents in Puerto Rico doubled after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017.

To wrap up the issue, Ahmet Bekisoglu and Gulbin Ahmad spotlight how Kurdish women in Rojava are overcoming the challenges that life in a war-torn region poses to pursuing a medical education.

Until next week!—Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor