For prioritization of health spending, a good place to start is with major causes of death. In statistics, when something occurs less than 5% of the time, it is considered minor. Using that as a measuring stick, there are 4 major causes of death in the USA — causes of death which are, individually, responsible for over 5% of all deaths.
These causes of death are each, individually, responsible for over 150,000 deaths a year.
#1 Heart Disease
Notice how deaths due to heart disease grew by about 40,000 from 2019 to 2020, and how they were highest in 2022. A proper allocation of healthcare dollars would address that, even though heart disease deaths have returned to where the prior upward trend from 2016-2019 would have predicted.
#2 Cancer
While the total deaths due to cancer were a little lower than those due to heart disease, there are two factors which make it so that cancer might be the most appropriate top priority of health spending, research, and development:
Cancer kills people at younger ages than heart disease does
The cancer death trend is consistently rising (even in 2023)
#3 Accidents (poisonings, falls, etc)
As covered here, almost half of all accidental deaths are due to drug overdoses, whether they are prescription or illicit drugs, while deaths due to falls and to car crashes make up a distant second and third place. The official prescriptions for opioid medications for pain relief do not explain the steep rise, but fentanyl might explain it.
In the two years from 2019 to 2021, yearly death by “accident” rose by over 50,000 — before finally peaking out in 2022.
#4 Cerebrovascular Disease (stroke)
Deaths due to stroke also rose above trend for 2020, 2021, and 2022, though the preliminary numbers for 2023 suggest they may be returning to the prior trend set back in 2016-2019.
The top 4 entries below represent the 4 major causes of death that are responsible for over 150,000 deaths per year (and have a crude yearly death rate of over 45 deaths per 100,000 persons):
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Notice how COVID-19 is not a major cause of death in 2023, showing under 50,000 total deaths and also only 15 COVID deaths per 100,000 persons. As the lowest major cause of death, in 2023, stroke was already “three times as important” as COVID.