Economic Inequity is a Health Issue
Economic Injustice is a Public Health Crisis
Study after study indicates that there is a link between our country's widening income gap and population health indicators, including life expectancy. In 2013, the National Academies of Sciences explored this subject and released a research report. The title says it all: "US Health in International Perspectives: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health."
Despite spending more money on health care than the rest of the world combined, Americans die earlier and experience more illness than our counterparts in other developed nations - and even many developing nations.
Studies over the last four decades have shown that more equal societies have lower mortality, longer lives, and more well-being. And data consistently show that economic inequality drives poor health: compared to those with higher incomes and opportunities, families with low incomes report greater levels of stress (Santiago, Wadsworth, & Stump, 2011), Low wage workers face more physically demanding jobs (Nobrega et al., 2016), and the richest one percent of individuals live between 10 and 15 years longer than the poorest one percent (Chetty et al., 2016).
Inequality makes us sick, and inequality kills.
Our Position
While the effect of economic inequity cannot be completely divorced from the effects of other social determinants of health, economic inequity can be considered as its own, or an additional, social determinant of health.
Behavioral interventions alone are insufficient to improve population health, as many behaviors that lead to poor health are closely linked with income and socioeconomic status.
Therefore, economic inequity can be thought of as an upstream social determinant driving higher levels of unhealthy behavior downstream. WPSR recognizes the fact that economic inequity leads to poorer health, as well as a need for a multipronged approach to these unjust outcomes of inequity. It’s never been more important for WPSR, as an organization of health care professionals and advocates, to adopt a strategic policy to address economic inequity as a root cause of poor health in Washington state and nationally.
“I volunteer for WPSR’s Economic Inequality and Health Task Force because it gives me a way to advocate to lawmakers about the policies I care about most—those that affect the most marginalized clients I’ve served over the past decade in Washington State. As a licensed Psychologist, I care deeply about changing the current systems that harm people’s mental health by perpetuating income inequality, mass incarceration, and systemic racism. WPSR stands for what I stand for, and gives me opportunities to both learn and practice policy advocacy in a welcoming atmosphere of my healthcare peers. ”