[laurencerowe]

It's true that non-coastal Utah, Colorado, and Minnesota have good life expectancy for the US but they lag behind California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Hawaii.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/state-life-expec...

Utah is 1.7 years behind the EU average. Even Hawaii with the highest life expectancy in the US is behind all but the former Eastern Block EU countries.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240324032202/https://www.ined....

(Archive link to get comparable 2022 data.)

[trimethylpurine]

Sounds about right. I'm surprised by California. Nice.

But I bet healthcare costs are way higher there. To match with higher income, I guess.

[laurencerowe]

Median income is not much lower in Utah than in California. Utah's low healthcare spending per capita is likely a reflection of Utah having the lowest median age of any state. Most healthcare costs are spent on elderly people.

I should add though that life expectancy is affected at least as much by social policy as by healthcare spending. Much of the difference is a result of cars/guns/drugs killing more people earlier in life in the US than in Europe.