Millennials Will Get Sick and Die Faster Than the Previous Generation

[JonLP24]

A new healthcare report paints a truly bleak picture of millennials’ wellness future.

Wednesday morning, Blue Cross Blue Shield published a 32-page report detailing the myriad ways in which millennials (my cohort!!!) will see their health decline and healthcare costs skyrocket over the next 10 years. The entire thing is a delight to read, and paired very well with my usual morning routine of “staring into my coffee and thinking about how fleeting life is .”

In the report’s intro, analysts from Moody’s Analytics write that, in examining “millennial health patterns,” they found “several interesting and concerning findings.” Well… Pardon mon Francais, but I’ll freaking say so! Using a combination of data from Blue Cross Blue Shield, the CDC, and prior health studies, the report predicts millennials will achieve the new triple threat of being sicker, broker, and dying younger than the previous generation, Gen X. My fellow millennials have been essentially predicting this very outcome for years, just without all the fancy data, regularly joking that our parents will outlive us. Turns out…...we’ve been right the whole time!

The report refers to two potential futures: a “baseline projection,” or what can be expected if we somehow manage to majorly correct the course of things; and a far-scarier “adverse projection,” or what happens if things just continue bumbling along the current path of doom and destruction. According to that adverse projection, millennials can expect at least a 40-percent increase in mortality compared to Gen-Xers at the same age. We (and when I say “we,” I’m referring to my sick peers and myself) can also expect to pay a third more in healthcare costs than the previous generation at the same age, and because of that, make about $4,500 less per year. This all absolutely rips.

The big economic picture looks something like millennials being less able to “contribute” to the “U.S. labor market.” Because we’re expected to be sicker, we’re also expected to be less good at our jobs—because, turns out, sick people aren’t as “productive.”

https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/evj98k/millennials-will-get-sick-and-die-faster-than-the-previous-generation

[Skittles]

1. I imagine stress being SOP from an early age will do a lot of damage

it is criminal what is being done to our young folk

[customerserviceguy]

5. We boomers

had the stress of potentially being drafted to die in a war for nothing. Every generation has things that it has to overcome.

[PunkinPi]

9. Being drafted is quite a bit different than being worried about being shot in your classroom. nt

[customerserviceguy]

10. Shot in a classroom

shot in a jungle, you're screwed either way.

And as far as classrooms go, do you think bullying is something new?

[PunkinPi]

11. Kindergarteners learning mass shooter drills are terrified.

No bullying isn't anything new, but easy access to weapons of war and mass shootings in schools and other venues (malls, concerts, nightclubs, etc.) is relatively new. Lots of kids (younger than 18) are growing up with PTSD and anxiety because of the toxic gun culture (including war) in this country. C'mon, you have to see a difference between a 5-6 yo child and an 18 yo?

[customerserviceguy]

12. And when I was in first and second grade

we had drills on what to do in a nuclear attack. And this was during the Cuban missile crisis. Are you telling me that wasn't similarly traumatic?

Wasn't the gun culture toxic for us when we all heard in our classrooms that JFK was shot? The same nun who told us that Armageddon was coming during the missile crisis was the one telling us to drop to our knees and pray for our President.

Every generation has things it has to get over.

[PunkinPi]

14. You're moving the goalposts from your original post and that was what I was commenting on.

You brought up the draft, which happens when your 18 yo, not a 5-6 yo. I'm sure air raid/nuclear attack drills were traumatizing in their own way, but those attacks never actually happened. As opposed to the frequency of actual mass school shootings that happen in public spaces these days.

Sure, "every generation has things to get over," but it seems both boomers and millenials are constantly engaged in who has it worse syndrome.

[LanternWaste]

15. You'll notice many posters arguing against points no one has actually made.

I think it allows the end-user to feel more clever than reality may dictate.

But that's just a guess.

[customerserviceguy]

20. It's not moving the goalposts

to bring up additional facts to make my point if previous ones have failed to accomplish the point.

Yes, we were never attacked by a nuclear weapon, but if one had hit, it wouldn't just have wiped out your school, it would have killed all of your friends and family, too. And we had no idea that things were going to work out.

I'm not trying to say that my generation had it worse, I'm just saying that each generation has its own obstacles to overcome, there's never really been a Golden Age to have a perfect life. Maybe millennials can take some comfort in knowing "this, too, shall pass."

[democratisphere]

2. Grand plan for culling the human overpopulation herd.

[dweller]

3. so turn

turn away from this focus on oneself, and look outward
on the being that gives you shelter, this Earth
for as it dies, what she has peopled, will comply
to a natural digression

me, i'm a boomer, i've BOOMED ! and as the smoke clears
and i'm left with my scattered ashes and dwindling days
i'm left with but the words... turn away from your inner, inert focus
look outward upon the horizon as it approaches
and roils across the landscape of the Being that brung you here...

Greta gets it, sadly she may be the last cry
😞

✌🏼

[customerserviceguy]

4. I tell ya

it's avocado toast. Today, thought as harmless as vaping was five years ago.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. vote like your lives depend on it -- and GOTV!

Elections matter. Get that message across to everyone you know, meet, tweet, talk to, or can find a way to contact.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. I fear they will blame boomers.

And as one I have so much faith on their generation being superheroes.

[Horse with no Name]

16. As they should

Not everyone but collectively as a society, voted in republicans who have mortgaged their future to the hilt to enrich the already rich.
The environment is suffering from the acts of the elected.
We are handing them a sick planet, low wage jobs, an eviscerated social safety net and the bill for the tax cuts that they didn’t receive.

[Withywindle]

8. I love the fact that it's a Blue Cross Blue Shield report

As if health insurance companies have nothing to do with the abysmal quality of American access to health care for non-rich people. No, sir, they're just neutrally reporting facts, don't shoot the messenger! As if health insurance companies have nothing to do with the decades of inflation in medical costs to the point where working people beg bystanders NOT to call an ambulance if they have an accident because the ambulance ride alone can costs thousands of dollars no $15-an-hour worker can afford.

Corporate health "care" is the CAUSE of these premature deaths.

Edit: I'm Gen X, btw. I've already seen too many people I know - who've worked their whole lives- have to go on Kickstarter or GoFundMe to raise money for cancer or diabetes etc. treatments. Some of them didn't make it. I know things will be even worse for Millennials because 1) there are a lot more of them, therefore more competition and 2) social safety nets are deteriorating, not improving.

[RobinA]

13. Dear Millennial,

Go have a nice steak, a baked potato with butter, and a nice rich dessert. You don't have to worry about heart disease because you're going to die before that, right? You will find yourself in a much better mood and you won't have to take opiates for your anxiety. You will be able to concentrate because you've had a meal rich in protein and fat, so goodbye ADD.

Every generation has its stress to deal with. Oh, and stop following your passion when it comes to jobs. You got sold a bill of goods on that one. Follow the health insurance and consider non-business possibilities, even though no one ever talks about them.

Good Luck! We all need it.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

18. Ok, Boomer. nt

[ansible]

17. Thanks a lot boomers

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. I hope they mention us boomers in their wills.

Though, I suspect, there are a few millenials and x-ers watching my boomer health with great interest.