Health of societies affected by political & economic policies, not individual treatments & choices

[Hannah Bell]

Our federal government, in its Institute of Medicine 2003 report "The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century," states on page 59: "more egalitarian societies (i.e. those with a less steep differential between the richest and the poorest) have better average health." This remarkable finding has emerged from research carried out over the last 25 years, and the science is as good as that linking smoking and poor health...

Other research findings demonstrate that individual behaviors are not as important for our health as political policies that impact the gap between the rich and the poor.

These behaviors are those we have learned since about toddlerdom: diet, exercise and not smoking. They are good ideas but when compared with economic justice, these individual practices are relatively unimportant.

For example, the healthiest country in the world, Japan, has the highest proportion of men smoking among all rich countries. Obviously smoking is not good for your health but compared with the less steep differential, it is not as important a factor.... Studies demonstrate the individual behaviors are not that important for our health. Health care, even universal health care, has been shown to have little or no overall impact on a nation's health.

The spending on health care in the United States makes up nearly one half of all monies paid for health care worldwide. Despite that, we who live in the USA, the richest country in world history (with half of the globe's billionaires), die younger than we should. To understand this conundrum, the first step we must take is to recognize that health and health care are two very different concepts -- despite sounding so similar. Health of societies is mostly determined by political and economic policies while health care can only prevent and treat individual diseases...

Economic justice is the medicine we need. In today's situation, this requires overturning all the recent federal legislation that gives ever more to the rich...

http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/275142_focus25.html

[xchrom]

1. bears repeating:

"The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century," states on page 59: "more egalitarian societies (i.e. those with a less steep differential between the richest and the poorest) have better average health."

[blindpig]

2. Yeah, but where's the money in that?

That sort of thing discriminates against the capitalists class, their right to profit at the expense of the rest of us. Capitalists are people too....

[Hannah Bell]

3. k

[Starry Messenger]

4. k&r

[Odin2005]

5. People need to read "The Spirit Level".

Societies with strong welfare states and smaller wealth disparities are healthier (physically and mentally), more productive, more tolerant, and more technologically innovative.

[LongTomH]

6. Ouch! Meant to recommend! Hit the wrong button!

:banghead: Anyway, I agree with this post.

[leftstreet]

7. I got it

K&R

Don't you hate when that happens?

[leftstreet]

8. 'Economic justice is the medicine we need' !!

Excellent piece