The US National Center for Health Statistics reports that health gaps between white and black people are finally closing, and people are living longer, although heart disease, cancer and obesity continue to loom large.

Between 2004 and 2014, life expectancy increased by an extra 1.1 years for women and 1.4 years for men, according to the report. The US has a history of racial disparity in life expectancy – generally, white people are expected to live the longest, while black people have the shortest lifespan. But this gap appears to be narrowing. In 1980, for example, white men were expected to live 6 years longer than black men – by 2014 the difference was 4.2 years.

Heart disease and cancer are the biggest killers, together responsible for 46 per cent of all US deaths in 2014. The good news is that these disorders aren’t fatal for as many people as they used to be – death rates decreased by 25 per cent for heart disease and 14 per cent for cancer between 2004 and 2014.

But suicide is on the rise, particularly among teenagers and adults aged between 45 and 64. In the latter age group, suicide rates increased by 27 per cent over a decade. And in the midst of the US opioid epidemic, deaths from heroin poisoning are also on the up, with five times as many deaths in 2014 as in 2004.

Notwithstanding this, the general picture is better. How much of it is down to Obamacare it is hard at this early stage to determine, but the statistics do give the lie to those who want to abolish Obamacare and go back to the old days, when the rich were well served by the medical profession (they still are), and the poor were left to struggle. Epicurus would applaud the improvement.