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Social inequality affects health outcomes essay
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Unite for Sight, a well-known not-for-profit organization that is recognized for world renowned health care delivery to those unable to access it for themselves, claims that “many adults living in low-income countries cannot afford to be sick: healthcare costs are high, transportation costs to health facilities accumulate, and taking days off work means lost productivity and lost wages. Undernutrition is a major underlying cause of illness and disease, and one that contributes to additional health care spending” (Unite For Sight). It has been a notorious fact for quite some time in the global community that the inequalities that exist within the classes of society are entirely intertwined. This social fact remains true when analyzing humanities
I chose not to use any of the prompts provided, but instead connect the article to what I learned in my sociology class lass quarter. In class we watched part one of film series of Unnatural causes, titled Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick "In Sickness and in Wealth". While reading the article this reminded me about the cases studied in the film to see whether wealth inequality contributes to making people sick. In the film they focused on the social determinants of health, wealth and education. In both the article and part one of the film Unnatural Causes they focused on three different individuals and how their health are affected by they choices they make and the access they have to care.
In chapter 2, of Essentials of the U.S Health Care System, Shi and Singh both talk about focusing on determinants to improve health. Having adequate health insurance for everyone is a great start to improving one’s health, but the bigger issue is addressing the needs of the people who have low income or the needs for different ethnic groups. In the documentaries, Bad Sugar, Becoming American, Collateral Damage and In Sickness and In Wealth, they all touched on social determinants. It did not matter if you lived in the United States, a third world country or a reservation, they all expressed a need the can better their health.
Do you ever wonder what advanced biological sciences? The Visible Human Project is a form of studying anatomy and the human body in all aspects. It is a practice that still goes on today. It is a form of sciences that advanced other discoveries, through it’s process of cross sectioning the human body and putting the information together. The Visible Human Project is a form of biotechnological science that is used to study human anatomy. Frankenstein uses a process much like this; One is fictional, the other real, but they both work toward a similar cause: understanding human life.
Having been born and raised in a third world country, I can say with certainty that I have experienced the ravaging effect of poverty and lack of health care providers. I still
Furthermore, Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) argue that health and social problems are worse in more unequal societies. Because of inequality, poverty, social exclusion with the underclass and their welfare dependency, life expectancy is less, mental illness and drug use is high and educational success and social mobility is limited. Data about the United States’ society also finds a correlation between lower death rates and higher incomes, a core t...
Poverty is a serious phenomenon that has been widespread all over the world. Although, many charitable organizations like CARE, Action Against Hunger (AAH) or Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) have operated with a highest enthusiasm to help the indigent, the amount of those have still been increasing significantly in recent years. According to the survey of the United States Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans in poverty rose from 12.2 to 15.9 percent and the proportion skyrocketed from 33.3 million to 48.8 million between 2000 and 2012 (Bishaw, 2013). The indigent are very poor people, including the disabled, beggars, homeless people who live in slums with lacking of insurance, being unemployed and earning underpaid salaries, about 1.25$ a day (Shah, 2011). Many of them are innocent people who face with mishaps that they cannot control. Consequently, they not only affect the society but also impact on development of the young generation. Therefore, the government should be responsible for take care of the indigent as well as supporting them to enhance the standard of living of citizens and maintain the stability of the society.
Health inequality is part of American life, intertwined and entangled with other social problems; gaps in income, education, age, race and gender. Gaps that social analysts cannot say for sure which factors are cause and which are effect. The unclear outcome is a huge chicken-and-egg puzzle, its solution reaching beyond health care. Because of that, everyday realities often control whether people live in health or in illness, to a ripe old age or early death. Clearly, poverty affects some groups more than others. The relationships between social class and general well being are persistent and troublesome; even in the twenty first century, life looks different for those belonging to upper and middle social classes compared to the lower social classes (Parsons 1942: 7).
The sickness is not something that affects the human body but it is the poverty, violence, unaffordable healthcare, housing crises, food scarcity, and health stigma that has become normal in society. By placing a high value on health and healthcare, the patriarchal society we live in has been able to set a value on people. Thus those which are considered inferior to begin with, such as racial minorities, women or queer people, have a bigger disadvantage. The persons worth is then measured in the ability to sell labor, mediated by identity, and defines our access to the basic needs of life, those who are sick are seen as expendable in exchange of the interest of those who are "well". Hedva states, "To stay alive, capitalism cannot be responsible for our care… its logic of exploitation requires that some of us die” (2015).
Swartz, K. (2009). Health care for the poor: for whom, what care, and whose responsibility?
“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti live with everyday, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how cost effectiveness should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that also argue this idea are Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right,” and Darshak Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” Leach’s article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, shelter, education, and healthcare are human rights that have to be available to everyone. He shares many of the same views on health care as Farmer, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing aids epidemic, and how it must be stopped. Like farmer, he also argues that it is easier to prevent these diseases then to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi’s article represents many of the questions that people would ask about cost effectiveness. Yet similar to Farmer’s views, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor d...
Former senior associate editor of The Atlantic, Matthew O’Brien, in his article, Poverty is Literally Making People Sick Because They Can’t Afford Food, claims that people of low income are more likely to become hospitalized for hypoglycemia at the end of the month. O’Brien’s purpose is to convey the idea that people of the lower class are struggling to pay for their own food at the end of the month and that could lead to severe health issues. He employs techniques within his article such as having a stern tone, using passionate word choice, and a concrete research study in order to evoke emotions of sorrow from his general audience especially those in the upper and middle class.
Start talking about access to health care, I would say, Health care is essential for all people but at the same time people have to pay directly for a medical care. If not, so you don’t have the chance to live. This allows rich men and the upper class to have the best health care. The problem is very serious in the US as they don’t have a universal medical care system such as in European countries. Social conflict theory in the US argues that the society provides the best health care but only for rich people, leaving 50 million Americans without health care insurance at present have low incomes. This is the case the movie, John Q, is arguing. A factory worker, whose child needs a transplant, however his medical insurance doesn’t cover the costs of the surgery.
The society we live in today experiences severe global inequality and a huge disparity between the rights accorded to all human beings. An increasing polarization between the rich and the poor and the commercialization of health has resulted in a diverse exploitation of individuals. Social structures inflict harm on the lower vulnerable sections of society in the form of physical, psychological, social, and economic damage. The pivotal cause factor for these avoidable structural inequalities is the unequal distribution of power. This phenomenon of structural violence inhabits our society in various forms. Living in today’s world where individuals are increasingly affected by infectious diseases, infertility, organ loss and nerve damage, it
Nearly 50,000 people, including 30,000 children, die each day due to poverty-related problems and preventable disease in underdeveloped Countries. That doesn’t include the other millions of people who are infected with AIDS and other incurable diseases. Especially those living in Sub-Saharan Africa (70%), or “the Third-World,” and while we fight to finish our homework, children in Africa fight to survive without food, or clean water. During the next few paragraphs I will give proof that poverty and disease are the two greatest challenges facing under developed countries.
Institute for Research on Poverty. (2013). Health & Poverty. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/research/health.htm