Marxism and Health Care

Healthcare systems are microcosms of the larger society in which they exist. Where there is structural violence or cultural violence in the larger society, so will there be evidence of systematic inequities in the institutions of these societies. The healthcare system in Australia is one example—from a plethora of similarly situated healthcare systems—in which the color of a patient’s skin or the race of his parents may determine the quality of medical received. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates are vastly different for non-Aboriginal, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islanders residing in Australia. The life expectancy of Aboriginal men is 21 years shorter than for non-Aboriginal men in Australia. For women, the difference is

Inequality stands out as an extremely broad and influential determinant of health. The known and uncontrollable inequality of the world around us, almost chooses for us individually, the access we will have to health care based on the social-structural hierarchy. In other words, individually, you can be born into a country with a degree of inequality that affects your outcomes

Health-care is a sociological institution within the American Culture. Health-care has many different aspects that pertain to patients, care givers and governmental approach to supply healthcare to all citizens. Sociology is the “scientific study of social behavior and human groups.” (Schaefer, 2009) Sociology plays a large role in how Americans look at our health-care systems and approach health and illness in one’s own life.

Marxist believe that the health service helps the capitalist economy more directly, believing that the health service maintains a healthy, hardworking and productive workforce. Workers who are ill or injured are returned to work and therefore continue to make profits for the owners of capital. Marxist believes that inequalities in health are related to how productive people are. The low levels of expenditure on the working class is explained by the presence of social class division throughout society, whereby working class people consistently receive worse treatment across the range of services in housing, education and health (Moore, 2008, p.265).

There has always been a link between social class and health, even with the welfare state and the improvements made to health in all sections of societies over the years, a difference still remains in this area. This difference is applied to all aspects of health, which include life expectancy, general levels of health and infant mortality. Many people argue that as long as the quality of life is

Currently, the author is trying to tell the audience that social problems can be more problematic than clinical problems. The author also discusses how the living standards for Canadians are not distributed equally. Since everything is unequal, those who are in a higher social position have more control over the economy and try their best to avoid risks and diseases (Graham, 2004). The main argument from the author is that healthcare determines the heath outcome of an individual. The author also addresses that all Canadians should have equal access to all the social determinants of health to avoid getting sick in the first place. That being said, the author is briefly addressing all the social determinants of health and how the all connect to health, but with inequality as an underlying issue. The dispute on how social determinants of health is a notion that directs attention to the social factors shaping people’s health is also discussed in the article (Graham, 2004).

According to Dennis Raphael, the conditions that overcome lifestyle activities such as daily smoking, physical activity, and eating habits are living and working conditions an individual endures daily (2016). In Canada, and in many countries just like it, focuses a lot on the biomedical approach which looks at treatment of disease, rather than prevention and the behavioural approach that is every individualized and its main target is to prevent disease through cultivating a lifestyle that encourages activities that work towards it (Raphael, 2016). These approaches aren’t the most effective because people continue to deteriorate as they require to work multiple precarious jobs that have a very poor condition and still not being able to live their fullest potential due to several barriers such as low wages (Raphael, 2016). This has a lot to do with how a society distributes social and economic resources among its citizens which shape the overall health and well-being of these people (Raphael, 2016). The chapter presents various frameworks that correlate with each other to influence health outcomes which all have a lot in common (Raphael, 2016). Such as the materialist framework discusses how the social determinants of health impact individual’s health outcomes by looking at

Poverty plays a huge role on why there is a large percent difference in perception of health. Due to the poverty gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, it becomes obvious why Aboriginals tend to suffer from higher amounts of chronic diseases and health-risk behaviours. In terms of income, Statistics

Tait defines social determinants as “the foundations in which we arrange society, which determines the health and wellbeing of people,” these determinants include socio-economic status which influences education, employment and access to health care (2011). Employment, education and health are intertwined, each having an effect on the other. Indigenous Australians are low on the social gradient, with an unemployment rate of 17% and in 2011, 54% of the Indigenous population, aged between 20 – 24, had a Year 12 qualification or equivalent, hence leading to poor health outcomes that are associated with ‘poverty’ (Marmot, 2011) (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2014). In a 2008 survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1 in 4 Indigenous Australians had difficulties in accessing health care and were hospitalised for preventable diseases, including cardiac, respiratory and metabolic condition, such as diabetes and asthma, 4 times more often than Non-Indigenous Australians (2014). Indigenous Australians are three times as likely to have diabetes and twice as likely to show symptoms of chronic kidney disease than Non-Indigenous Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014).

The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is heavily influenced and affected by socio-economic and environmental factors. The articles identify these social determinants as those responsible for high levels of chronic disease in indigenous people, poor health care and lower life expectancy rates than the non-indigenous population. Both Telegraph news articles (as well as numerous other articles) explore the link between poverty, education, employment and the environment with the negative health statistics concerning Indigenous Australians. A UN report delivered (in 2010?_____) found Australia’s

Social determinants of health can be referred to as the living conditions that can affect an individuals’s health. Some of these determinants of health include; qualify of life during infancy, education, employment, working conditions, food security, gender, health care services, housing, income and its distribution, social safety net, social exclusion, employment security and aboriginal status (Raphael, D., 2010, Pg 148). Those with higher socio-economic status; such as the upperclass and the upper middle-class, tend to possess a majority of resources, as opposed to those with lower socio-economic status; such as the lower middle-class and the lower class. This situation is the basis of the concept of social inequality; income inequality

There is a correlation between class and health inequalities which impact on an individuals overall health. Marxism a structural theory explains the link between class and health as the result of conflicts in interests within a capitalist society producing two distinct classes (Germov, 2014) The two groups are the bourgeoisies the capitalist class who own the means of production and the proletariat the working class who sell their labour (Germov, 2014). Marxism emphasizes the anticipation of profit

Have a theoretical understanding of the definition of health and factors causing illness and recognize the need for

People have many desires, among then good health, but there is a lack of resources to provide all things to all people. Some people would consider resources when talking about health care economics; could include good health, education and access to financial means to afford health care costs or insurance premiums. In the presence of this scarcity, someone, or some process, must decide what mixture of goods and services to produce, what quantity of each is to be produced, and how to allocate the production to participate in the economy. Access and use of available resources can impact one health. “Individuals can undertake a variety of actions to achieve their desired level of health, which is constrained by physical factors and is subject to various risks. People’s choices about living location, work, and diet, recreation, over the counter medication, recreational drug use and formal health care can all affect their health status. Perhaps, startlingly, studies of factors that determine health in affluent societies indicate that changes in lifestyle choices and status such as environment, income, education, and cigarette consumption outweigh the contribution of changes in health care services.” (Answers.com, retrieved 4/6/09)

* If individuals take upon a sick role one must be exempt from social responsibilities.