Does Your Income Affect Your Health?
Our level of income directly affects our health. Did you know
that? How much money you make helps to determine how healthy you
will be. Doesn't really make sense, if you don't' look at the
broader picture. In the big picture, however, here is the view:
you are educated, have a degree, and are exposed to tons of
information during your college years. You are exposed to health
classes, athletes, and all sorts of professional people who
already understand the importance of health in your life.
You graduate college, your income levels are quite nice, and
you have the opportunity to purchase magazines, health and
fitness of course. Can you see how your education and
intelligence levels affect your health now? This is a
generalization that has proven itself time and again. All you
have to do is observe your developed countries versus the third
world, underdeveloped countries.
Standard of living and health are directly related. Past the
consideration of intelligence development, our level of
education and income plays a tremendous role in our ability to
educate ourselves about the health options we should exercise.
Affordable fitness centers are one of the nicer privileges of
higher income. Most fitness centers provide their customers with
individualized weight and exercise programs that further advance
the customer's health.
Having higher income levels provides us with access to fitness
centers, better choices for our eating patterns, and better
medical care. It is in the final section of the previous
sentence that there is found a real benefit of higher income, in
direct relation to our health. Higher levels of education and
income almost always have access to better medical care. The
availability of better care, whether it is through better
company paid insurance, life in a metropolitan area versus rural
area, or simply being able to afford a more specialized doctor
when the situation warrants. In most cases, higher income
families live in more populated areas, with access to better
doctors and larger medical facilities. Often their employers
have nurses or doctors that are retained, if not on staff, as
emergencies warrant.
If the evidence presented above is not enough to satisfy your
curiosity concerning the role income plays in our health, take
the time to visit the US Census. This information is available
through the internet. There you will find all kinds of
statistics, from income averages in areas of the United States,
to education levels in those same places. Also available is
information related to the household. Check for yourself. You
can see a direct relationship in many areas of the country
between income levels and health statistics for that area.
It is sad indeed, that many of the people who are in the
greatest need are not able to get that need met. Socialized
medicine as been studied as a possible solution to our some of
our health problems, but when studied in detail, socialized
medicine really does not improve the level of health for the
population, it just makes medical care free and generally of
less quality.