A Problem Even Worse Than The Budget Deficit

Listening to folks in the national press it's often hard to believe that anything could be more alarming than the long-term fiscal sustainability of America's retirement programs, but it turns out that some things are even worse than the budget deficit. Catherine Rampell discovers, for example, that sometimes people get laid off and even get sick and die:

New research suggests that they may die sooner, because their health, income security and mental well-being were battered by recession at a crucial time in their lives. A recent studyby economists at Wellesley College found that people who lost their jobs in the few years before becoming eligible for Social Security lost up to three years from their life expectancy, largely because they no longer had access to affordable health care.
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