We have all heard the aphorism "Health is wealth." It is often proffered as consolation for the financially impoverished. "Never mind that you're not rich," some well-meaning counselor would say. "At least you're healthy, and that's better than all the money in the world."
It's a nice little phrase to toss, but it glosses over a big sad truth: poor people are seldom as healthy as the rich. In the real world, wealth is health. If you're not wealthy, no matter how healthy you seem to be right now, your rich counterparts will probably stay healthy far longer than you will.
Why is this so?
A Growing Gap
A 2016 paper published by The Brookings Institution reports that even among people born as early as the 1920s, the level of one's income already
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Compare that with patients who cannot even imagine taking time off from work because doing so will mean losing the day's much-needed wages. Or what about the patients who, upon hearing the prescribed treatment regimen, know they will never be able to afford it?
These patients end up leaving the doctor's clinic with the heavy resignation that their disease cannot be cured practicably—therefore, it cannot be cured at all.
Health care access is undeniably a factor in people's longevity.
But you may be surprised to know that, according to a 2007 paper published by the New England Journal of Medicine, access to health care actually accounts for a mere 10% of preventable deaths.
In other words, our greatest killer is not our inability to get treatment for our diseases. What is it then? What accounts for the other 90%?
The hidden 90%
Most people die sooner than they should because of genetic predisposition (30%), behavioral patterns (40%), and social/environmental conditions (20%).
We will not discuss the genetic factor, because that cuts across social classes and income levels.
But what behavioral patterns and social/environmental conditions contribute to earlier
The need to distribute wealth amongst the population is another way to promote health equity as it pertains to ensuring that the balance of power is not too one-sided by the rich. Another example of improving the health state is to improve the gap of economic levels by making sure that the poor does not get poorer and the middle class does not become too strained. Lastly, health is dependent on the resources available. If communities are empowered and advocate for change in their health, there is a better chance of improving the health disparities within communities (Adelman, 2008).
As evidenced by this individual stating “Don’t wait until I’m so sick that I can’t make any decisions about my own body” (J, Nguyen, personal communication, November 20th, 2014). He would want to be able to determine and make his own decisions in regards to his own health like medical interventions – organ transplant, operations, and medications. Therefore, members of healthcare should discuss with the patient about their wishes if events such as palliative care would occur as most people do not have an advanced directive planned. Additionally, it is a part of our role as a member of healthcare to always inform the patient what is happening, why they are taking this medication, and be as honest in regards to the client’s health. I can understand how not informing them information regarding their illness and neglecting their concerns can affect them physically and mentally. Furthermore, this individual does not want to receive futile treatment; especially, since he works in healthcare and understands the cost of medical treatments. The individual was logically and able to reason that if it is not beneficial, there is no need to perform it. Research indicated that “hospital and 6-month mortality rates were significantly higher for patients perceived as receiving futile and probably futile treatment compared with patients perceived as receiving no futile treatment”
The Health and Wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of themselves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor clinical outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, poor healthcare, on stable employment, and uncertain physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is a somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have sufficient funds to pay for said resources will, unfortunately, have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
This lack of prevention stems from poor education often received in those areas and the culture that often permeates within them (Williams/Torrens). Widely accepted is the concept that people with higher incomes generally enjoy better health and live longer than people with lower incomes.
Opportunities for good health bypass many of us daily. If we all were rich we all would have good healthcare because we could afford it. Being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle can be costly. For most people good health may be unobtainable due to ones economic circumstances. In most situations being healthy has nothing to do with color or zip code. However it has everything to do with money or the lack thereof.
The Health and wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of them selves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor health outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, in adequate healthcare, on stable employment, and unsafe physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have adequate funding to pay for said resources will unfortunately have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
Health is one of the top concerns in the US at this time. With the still new adaption of Obamacare, it seems like it’s a big focus on providing everyone with healthcare. We now get penalized for not having it, so now it plays more importance in our lives. Race and social status play a huge part of the longevity of life. Those who are in upper class have the ability to pay for the best healthcare. They are able to get treatments that others may not be able to afford. Lower class people may have to suffer and not receive certain treatments if their insurance does not cover the cost. Studies have often shown that people with college education smoke less than those who don’t attend and eat and exercise more. I think there is also the notation that if you are wealthier and the ability to spend your wealth, you will take care of yourself more in order to enjoy your life more. There may be things you want to do and you know to do them you have to live a healthy lifestyle.
The main factor that seems to alter the inequality of health among the world is the social gradient. Throughout life, poor social and economic circumstances seem to affect health, and those people further below the social ladder seem to have twice the chance of serious illnesses or premature death, compared to those near the top (Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006).
Three in 2015 said their decision was because they could not afford treatment, and within the 17 years the data was collected, only 30 people used that as their reasoning (Oregon, Legislative Assembly, Assembly, Oregon Public Health Division 6). The majority of people do it because their illness take the enjoyable things out of life, most patients are over 65 years of age and have lived their life to their desire. Their illness took the life they knew and loved away from them. Modern Day medicine is used to heal the patient and prolong death, but not to induce death. Medicine has its limits. There are some illnesses that can’t be cured yet, illnesses that cause unending pain. If the sickness can’t be cured with medication and the symptoms still leave the patients in suffering after the medications that are used to subdue their symptoms are administered, then the patient's wishes should be fulfilled, even if that means
Wisdom dictates that health is the best wealth. A person may have amounted all the gold and riches in the land but without health they will be unable to enjoy them. On the other hand with good health one has better access to enjoy all that life has to offer. Thus health is the best wealth as it allows happiness to enter one’s life…The inherit problem with this anecdote is that it forgets that one’s social hierarchy and the conditions within ones community have a direct impact on the health and wellness of the people within the community. Individuals who are blessed with more money are able to live in communities that are not plagued with disease and violence while at the same time having the ability to get medical assistance to protect their
Refusals of consideration, similar to agrees to treatment, must be educated. Crisis office staff have a commitment to depict for a leaving patient the nature and seriousness of the patient's condition; the nature, liabilities, and advantages of the proposed treatment; and the results of denying that treatment. At the point when a patient shows a craving to leave without treatment, work force will be enticed to depict the potential results in the broadest conceivable terms. This might be the simplest methodology, yet it isn't as a matter of course the
Affluence determines an individual 's health, and the United States stands among the richest nations. But how might the prosperity of a nation affect the entirety of its citizens? And what factors of wealth affect health? Further, the idea that one can advance in society if one works hard—a deep-set American belief—depends on an individual 's health. The benefits in health enjoyed by wealthy nations are distributed inequitably. Care is granted only to those that can afford it, limiting the success to those who cannot. One must wonder how core democratic values—liberty, equality, and justice—endure in such a system: So what causes this in the first place, and how can we fix it?
Health consequences are the result of accumulation of inequalities over the life course (Hofrichter, 2003). It has been argued, the more egalitarian a country is, the healthier the population, and key to a healthy population is the organization of material conditions in everyday life. These conditions are referred to as the social determinants of health, and include such things as levels of employment, standard of living, education, economic development, racism and workplace conditions to name a few (Hofrichter, 2003). It is these social determinants of health which in turn perpetuate health inequalities. Yet there are social gradients in health as who gets these resources is socially determined (Marmot, 2005), and problems of the social gradient are more prevalent in unequal countries as health tends to improve the higher the socio-economic status and those who are less well-off and socially excluded find their health status deteriorating as they fair badly in relation to social determinants (Farrell et al., 2008). These health inequalities are systematic and therefore, are not randomly distributed, they are socially produced, and they are not a product of biological processes (Farrell et al., 2008). Thus, the average wellbeing is not dependent on national income and economic growth, but yet “differences between – and within –
In “Class Divide in Health Widens, says Thinktank”, Denis Campbell illustrates the relationship between health and social classes. As he argues, better-off people tend to shun bad habits to improve their life chances, whereas poorer people continue engaging in bad health practices and habits. One of
For example a person living in a deprived council estate, with a very low income has been proven to be more at risk of developing health issues compared to someone from a higher social class as there is a strong correlation between poverty and ill health. This has been backed up by (WHO, 1946) that state that ‘poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick.’