The Real 'Socioeconomic Gap' in Healthcare: Part One

Many activists blindly blame ‘socioeconomic’ factors, as the main cause in the healthcare difference between rich and poor. They talk alot about closing the ‘gap’ between different economic levels, but spend far too little time actually thinking about what factors are involved in creating this gap.

Yes, it is undeniable that there is a positive correlation between income levels and health status (this is true for most conditions, not all, which is an important factor to remember as well), but holding money in your hand is not just a ticket to good health. It is the environments and living situations that differ between socioeconomic status levels that cause the health disparities, not the money itself.

So what if we focused on those environmental differences and tried to change those first? That would truly be ‘preventative’ medicine. The term ‘preventative medicine’ is thrown around like a healthcare messiah, but sadly, often translates into ‘pre-screening’ tests. Random testing does not define preventative medicine at all, but rather answers the Jeopardy question “How do you waste the most money in the least amount of time?”.......

Preventative medicine at its core involves enabling lifestyle changes which foster good health. So what would those lifestyle changes include? How about access to quality foods. It is horrendous that we live in a nation where junk food costs less than fruits and veggies. Fruit and vegetable people, honestly, you plant them in the ground, they grown, you pick them...but sadly, it is true, it is expensive to eat well.

According to a study done by the University of Washington, researchers found when they compared the prices of 370 foods sold at supermarkets, junk foods not only cost less than fruits and vegetables, but prices were also less likely to rise as a result of inflation.

Upon reporting the results of the study, lead author Adam Drewnowski remarked:

“If you have $3 to feed yourself, your choices gravitate toward foods which give you the most calories per dollar. Not only are the empty calories cheaper, but the healthy foods are becoming more and more expensive. Vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods.”

Now that is a tragedy for healthcare that needs to be fixed, not the fact that poor people don’t have insurance.

Another recent study on mortality rates in the UK revealed that low-income families living in green areas were almost as healthy as their affluent neighbors. University of Glasgow researcher Richard Mitchell commented; "We found that the health gap between the rich and poor is much lower in areas with the greenest environments."

Mitchell and his team compared the health and well-being of people across a range of incomes to the amount of green space in their area. They found people of lower socioeconomic levels who lived in green areas were less likely to die than those in more industrialized areas. Specifically, lower income people in green areas had a reduced rate of heart disease than those of the same income level living in more developed suburbs.

Mitchell concluded, "The implications of this study are clear: environments that promote good health might be crucial in the fight to reduce health inequalities".

So we have two key factors isolated here:

-Access to affordable, nutritious food

-Access to green space

Some innovative cities are already working to help narrow this environmental gap. More on the proposed solutions in part dos.....