Poverty and Healthcare
Did you know one frappuccino at Starbucks costs more than the median income for people in the developing world ($3 a day)? Poverty is a growing problem by which thousands of people die each day.
Lack of Healthcare is one of the major effects of poverty in society. Poverty affects health by limiting access to proper nutrition; shelter; safe neighborhoods in which to learn, live, and work; clean air and water; utilities; and other elements that define an individual’s standard of living. According to Peters, “Individuals who live in impoverished neighborhoods are likely to experience poor health due to a combination of factors that present obstacles to health maintenance” (Peters et al., 2008, p.4). By increasing the rate of disease, the availability of healthcare reduces even more. This problem not only affects developing countries but industrialized societies as well. Singh and Chudasama state, “The American Community Survey revealed that 14.5% of all U.S. citizens fell below the poverty line in 2013 and that youth, racial and ethnic minorities, those without a high school diploma, and the unemployed had the highest rates of poverty” (Singh & Chudasama, 2020, January 13, p.1). Poverty tends to strike the uneducated. Another part of society that healthcare does not contribute to is children. Peters states, “In the poorest wealth quintile, 31% of Cambodian children received no interventions and 17%, only one intervention” (Peters et al., 2008, p. 4). The fact that this was only an example of a fraction of the world is heartbreaking. Poor children have been a humongous target for quite some time.
Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of poor health. The most prominent reason why healthcare is not available to everyone is that countries are not willing to spend money on it. Peters declares, “LMICs (Low and middle-income countries) account for 90% of the global burden of disease but for only 12% of global spending on health”(Peters et al., 2008, p. 2). High-income countries spend about 100 times more on health per capita than low-income countries. Healthcare, in various ways, can be why poverty occurs in the first place. According to Seipel, “When health care is needed but is delayed or not obtained, people’s health worsens, which in turn leads to lost income and higher health care costs, both of which contribute to poverty”(Seipel, 1999, September, p. 3). Deprivations that lead to ill health are common in developing countries, and the poor in developing countries are particularly at risk. A common strategy of governments seeking to improve access to health services is to build more public clinics and hospitals. Pinstrup-Andersen and Cheng add, “Examples of successful programs include PROGRESA, which has improved access to education, health care, clean water, safe sanitation and child care in Mexico”(Pinstrup-Andersen & Cheng, 2007, September, p. 2). Although the world is breaking apart, it is never too late to stop it. Access to healthcare is not the only rising issue, child labor may be the next influential problem.
The big question is, what can you do about it? A simple donation to your local charities can help the situation of poverty more than you think.
References
Peters, D. H., Garg, A., Bloom, G., Walker, D. G., Brieger, W. R., & Hafizur Rahman, M. (2008). Poverty and Access to Health Care in Developing Countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1136(1), 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1425.011
Singh, P. K., & Chudasama, H. (2020, January 13). Evaluating poverty alleviation strategies in a developing country. Plos One, 15(1), e0227176. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176
Pinstrup-Andersen, P., & Cheng, F. (2007, September). Still hungry. Scientific American, 297(3), 96–103. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0907-96
Seipel, M. M. O. (1999, September). Social consequences of malnutrition. Social Work, 44(5), 416–425. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/44.5.416
