Health and illness vary enormously by many social factors. Discuss how health and illness vary according to whether people and countries are poor or rich. How do health care and causes of death vary according to wealth or poverty?

Question

In your answer note how health and illness relate to education, income, race, and ethnicity in the U.S.
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

People in more developed countries live longer and healthier lives; within every country, the wealthy live longer and healthier lives. Wealthy people are not immune to illness but they have better nutrition, better access to better quality health care, and better standards of living, and these all lead to healthier lives. In contrast, lower-class people work in more dangerous and hazardous jobs with fewer health insurance benefits and often live in neighborhoods or in housing that endangers health (lead-based paint, rodents or insects, unsanitary water or food). Those with lower education or lower income have lower life expectancy than those with higher education or income. Racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. die of several causes with higher rates than whites, however poverty is a better explanation for health disparities. As health care costs and the number of Americans living in poverty or in the ranks of the working poor all increase, health and health care depend on ability or inability to pay for screening and preventive care, treatment and follow-up, and safe and healthy living conditions. Those at the bottom end of the socioeconomic ladder are less likely to have health insurance, and, if they do, their insurance likely has strict limits.