The health gap is widening between rich and poor Canadians, the Canadian Medical Association says. The CMA is meeting in Yellowknife to consider how to reduce that gap.
In a news release, the CMA released results of a public opinion survey that found "The health of Canadians is increasingly being affected by how much money they earn, with lower income groups reporting poorer health and greater use of health services than those with higher incomes." The release also said:
In describing their health, only 39 per cent of those earning less than $30,000 a year said it was excellent or very good, compared to 68 per cent of those earning $60,000 or more – a gap of 29 percentage points. In 2009, the gap between the two income groups was 17 points.
The findings come from an Ipsos Reid survey carried out for the Canadian Medical Association as it prepared its 2012 National Report Card on Canadian health care.
"When it comes to the well-being of Canadians, the old saying that wealth equals health continues to ring true," said Dr. John Haggie, president of the CMA. "What is particularly worrisome for Canada's doctors is that in a nation as prosperous as Canada, the gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots' appears to be widening."
The survey said 59 per cent of lower-income Canadians reported accessing health care in the past month, compared to 43 per cent of those with higher incomes. Almost a quarter of those on low incomes reported they had delayed or stopped the purchase of prescription drugs, while only 3 per cent of higher-income Canadians did.
Lower-income Canadians also reported being diagnosed with chronic conditions, being overweight, and having overweight children, at higher rates than upper-income Canadians. A third of lower-income Canadians use tobacco daily, compared to 10 per cent of those on higher incomes.
The CMA also released its 12th Annual National Report Card on Health Care, based on the survey. The report found that while all Canadians had reported the same rate of health-care access in 2009, a gap of 16 percentage points has opened in the past three years.
Similarly, there was no gap in 2009 between higher-income and lower-income Canadians in their self-perceptions of being overweight. But in 2012 the gap was 6 points: 38 per cent among those earning under $30,000 and 32 per cent among those earning over $60,000.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Hakuin
40 weeks ago
But
It's the American Dream!
MEW
40 weeks ago
Specialist doctors
are the highest paid category of income earners in Canada. I doubt if they understand the issues enough to deal with how their outrageous salaries are causing fellow citizens to have poorer health.
A suggestion to the CMA is to tell its provincial wings to stop holding the public system hostage to their unreasonable wages demands. No money for anyone except the doctors is the mantra across the country. The doctors are the rich and they are getting richer. It is rich for them to sit around talking about how to alleviate the misery caused by the system that rewards them so well.
columbia river eagle
40 weeks ago
Doctors' salaries
To MEW: Aw c'mon. CEO's, investment bankers, financial analysts, brokers: they're the ones who make the big bucks. But the fact is, in my experience (limited but personal) they work for it. Specialists in medicine may get to bill large, but their overheads can be large too. In rural areas especially, doctors in BC are overworked and underpaid for what they do. Family docs in particular. Show me another profession or line of work that requires 22 years of in-school education and never-ending professional development, requires the long hours and call schedules that doctors often face, and a positive outlook when faced with illness, complaints, pain and death on a daily or weekly basis. Sure, a few doctors get greedy, but so do other people. The problem is not that doctors' salaries are too high, but that working salaries are too low. Business is as much to blame as professionals. Let's not scapegoat the docs, who are in the main dedicated and hard-working beyond what most of us are capable of.
OwlRol
39 weeks ago
Surveys good, real evidence required
Thanks a lot little Stevie. Is this how political/medical decisions are going to be made in Canada from now on?
I can appreciate surveys done by Ipsos Reid, as they are usually quite accurate. But they are based on interviews with people who have their own perceptions and agendas.
Many people need medications for various ailments, some chronic and ongoing, but these are perhaps the greatest cost to our health care system and surely get pushed by some doctors with Big Pharma in the background. Herein lies the problem of affordability reported in this survey. And not all meds are safe, especially when prescribed "off label" (just look at the American pharmaceutical ads rapid endings of side effects). Where possible, we need natural alternatives, excersize for obesity, diet for diabetes, etc.
But I digress. The main point is that real medical data should determine the evidence of medical issues, using surveys as a "supplement", not as the prime driver of medical or health care policy.
It really is the job of Stats Can to gather and interpret actual medical data (evidence) and release it to the medical profession and the general public, rather than people's impressions, even if they may be fairly accurate.
But when funding cutbacks and fear of putting forward government criticism limits what Stats Can does, the responsibility falls directly on the Harper Conservatives.
Perhaps these surveys are the only way left to raise such issues with this party's politicians (and their provincial counterparts) who seem to be more concerned with public opinion and being elected next time around than with the good health of Canadians.