Health and health care come with a price and therefore it is not equally accessible to all people. Although everybody gets sick regardless of social class, a person’s position in society ultimately determines the ability to avail of quality health care services. It also determines what other resources are available for good health and its maintenance. Access to the health care system is through insurance. With ample finances, people can obtain good education that qualifies them for higher paying jobs.
In turn, higher paying jobs provide persons with the option of having a good insurance policy. On the other hand, the lower educated take on lower-paid jobs and as such cannot pay for good insurance. Health care now becomes a heavy burden on their pocket. A higher social position also affects the health care that one receives. The affluent, with their money and connections, can seek medical services at the best hospitals. Here they are given prompt care, with specialists as their doctors and receive comprehensive, state-of-the-art treatment.
In contrast, the lower classes can afford services in second class to public hospitals staffed by less experienced or resident doctors who provide inadequate treatment. Ethnicity is also a factor in accessing the health care system. This is because people of color are usually those who occupy the lower ranks of the economy. They are the ones less educated, earn less and are more likely to have inadequate insurance. In the case of Ms. Gora who is Polish American, she was not even proficient in English and so had trouble communicating with her doctor or understanding health related literature written in English.
2. How do you think their social class may have contributed to their stress, behaviors and social support networks? Stress is anything that places a demand on the body. When it is prolonged, it affects the health of people by lowering the body’s ability to ward off disease. Hence, the more stressful one’s life is, the more one is prone to illness. The level of stress depends on one’s social class. Low paying jobs are typically more stressful because of less favorable working conditions (longer working hours, manual work, the need to juggle more than one job to make ends meet) than are high paying jobs.
The affluent can also afford big houses in crime-free neighborhoods, cars over public transportation and vacations. They also have the resources and time to spare for such conveniences in life as exercise facilities and other means of recreation that minimize or relieve stress. At the same time, they have peers and family members (e. g. doctors) who understand the disease and therefore support them in their actions to bring back their health. For instance, Mr. Miele’s wife of upper middle class origins did research on her husband’s illness.
From her understanding, she supported her husband by ensuring his compliance with medications, diet, follow-up check-ups and exercise. Knowledge also means more control over one’s life. Knowing how a particular treatment works, why it is necessary for your illness and the consequences of complying and not complying will convince a person to willfully do the right thing – fulfill the doctor’s recommendations even if it requires major changes in lifestyle because in the end it will result in a higher quality of life. It is different for those in the lower classes.
The lack of finances for adequate housing, healthy food, convenient transportation and other needs contribute to the stress they already experience at work. They may not have the time or the money to spend on things beyond their necessities. Their knowledge levels also limit their understanding of disease, the need for compliance to treatment and the need to provide support to the sick. They also stick to unhealthy habits because these give them pleasure at the moment without regard for the long term consequences. Response to post:
I agree with what you said about money influencing everything in life. Without money, we cannot have education, influence, convenience, good health or the best in life. When you also said that people are always going to be judged based on their income, this means to me that the options that are presented to us are always based on what we can afford and not on what we really need. Although all three heart attack patients needed angioplasty, only two were able to have it with one getting it after some delay. This means to say that sadly also, quality of life is all about money.
I also agree when you stated that culture shapes our health habits. Of course our present eating habits are influenced by what and how we were fed since we were children but television, advertising, what we learn in school and the influence of our peers also plays a role in changing our habits for better or for worse. In order to change our unhealthy habits, people should learn to evaluate the information that is handed to them to know if these are beneficial or not. They also have to associate with other people who try to live healthy lives in order for them to reinforce each other’s behavior.