The Preventable Designation
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and University of Colorado researchers published findings in JAMA Network Open this month: autistic adults on Medicaid have a life expectancy of 64.9 years, compared to 78.7 for the U.S. general population. Fourteen years. The study tracked 2,048,046 Medicaid beneficiaries with autism spectrum disorder over 21 years. The researchers used one specific word: preventable . In public health research, "preventable excess mortality" is not a soft term. It's an indictment. It means deaths that could have been avoided through timely access to effective healthcare, adequate treatment of existing conditions, preventive care, continuity of care, and quality of care that takes the patient seriously. It means the system has the knowledge and the tools, and people are dying anyway. The study found elevated mortality across most categories of diseases and health conditions. Not one catastrophic condition. Everything. Cardiovasc...