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 other wealthy nations - and even many with far less wealth than the United States.
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), people who are paid a lower wage 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).
Economic inequity can be thought of as an upstream social determinant creating unhealthy conditions downstream. For example, a person living in a food desert miles from a grocery store, doesn’t have the resources they need to maintain a nutritious diet, and a person working multiple jobs to make ends meet may not have the time or energy to cook at home. These are systemic issues. Behavioral interventions alone - such as exercising, eating nutritious foods, or not smoking - are insufficient to improve population health and require an environment that allows for such behaviors. We need policy change to improve health outcomes.
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.
Economic Justice in Inextricable from Racial Justice
We can’t address economic issues without also addressing racism. Economic systems in the United States were built on a foundation of slavery, white supremacy, and settler colonialism. Our systems of housing, education, incarceration, taxation, and more all continue to perpetuate racial and economic injustices, leading to illness and harm.
In order to improve the health of our country and state, we must pass policies that dismantle and transform these systems. There is no economic justice without racial justice.
“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. ”