Health: Why Universal Medical Care Only Go So Far By Andre Picard

Introduction
This essay will examine the article “Wealth begets health: Why universal medical care only goes so far” written by Andre Picard for The Globe and Mail in 2013. The article discusses various aspects of how an individual’s income can often be a crucial determinant of their health. It also discusses that even with equal access to healthcare, individual’s with lower incomes are more likely to experience health problems and are more likely to die at a younger age than those with higher incomes (Raphael, 2010). The main argument that Picard discusses in the article is that even with universal medical care there are still wide gaps between the health of low-income and high-income people. This is an important issue because many of

To some this may seem odd as to how there is a consistent decline in the health outcomes and life expectancies as you go down the economic hierarchy even though everyone has access to the same medical care. This is because the role that medical care plays in in the health outcomes in individuals is much lower than many would expect. Researchers believe that health outcomes are related 25% to health care, 25% to genetics and 50% to socioeconomic status with aspects including income, education, housing, physical environment and community engagement (Picard, 2013). The reasoning behind this phenomena is that as you move down the income ladder, the amount of day-to-day stress a person is under increases. Stress is the body’s way of dealing with immediate threats, it affects the functioning of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, the neuroendocrine system and the metabolic system allowing for a fight-or-flight reaction to be made and after this reaction is made and the person is safe the stress levels will go down and their systems will go back to their normal functioning (Raphael, 2010). The problem for people of low income is that they are under the constant threats that accompany low income, such as insecure employment and food insecurity (Raphael, 2010). This results in their bodily systems to always be functioning whilst under

This is because of the stress associated with living a low-income lifestyle. The stress which someone is constantly under if they are living in poverty causes their sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, their neuroendocrine system and their metabolic system to function as if they are in a fight-or-flight scenario all the time and this wears down their body and makes them susceptible to illness and disease as well as thickening of the arteriole walls. The lives of children born into low-income families are put at risk due to the unfortunate likelihood that they will not receive the proper foods or environment to facilitate proper development which will impact their health for the rest of their lives. The Canadian government is also under financial stress as the amount of low-income people who need medical care increases and the money they would have provided the government ceases. The health of Canadians is largely determined by income, even though every level of income has the same access to medical