Damien Broderick writes:
>I'll be interested to hear comments from Robin and any other health experts.
OK, I'll bite.
It's clear that being poor is a very big hit on health, that it mostly isn't due to spending less on health care, nor to the poor having worse behavior like smoking, lack of excercise. eating fats, etc. A big part of it may well be due to higher stress among poorer people, including cars that break down more often, less savings to last through unemployment, living in higher crime areas, etc. Another big part of it may be a correlation between being poor and having less social support from friends and family.
There is a big leap between health observations and supporting a welfare state.
1) Even if monetary insurance against being poor were a great idea, private
insurance is possible if allowed and not displaced by public insurance.
2) Even if health were just a matter of monetary wealth, non-linearities in
that relation may account for all the dependence between average nation health
and national wealth inequalities.
3) Many nations have higher wealth inequality not because of lacking a welfare
state, but because they encompass a wider divergence in cultures, ethnicities,
etc.
4) Wealth transfer probably doesn't address most of the reasons the poor have
worse health.
I do think this literature has important lessons for people trying to be healthy. You should pay a lot of attention to getting lots of social supports, and to reducing the chance of events that could really stress you, like crime, unemployment, divorce, etc. Don't be so focused on whether you are overweight or smoke.
Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-2627