Introduction
Canada has been hailed as one of the best countries in term of universal health care system. However, despite these positive reviews and global admiration of its health care system, there are various factors that are not admirable. The Canadian society is anchored on social justice and social equality. Therefore, every citizen, irrespective of color, ethnicity or sexuality is entitled to good healthcare. As such, it is a right to enjoy good healthcare system that is universal to all. However, this cannot be said to be true especially to the people of color such as the aboriginal. Over the years, the success of the system has often overshadowed some of its key shortcoming such as the existence of racial discrimination. Therefore, this paper will explore the relationship between racism and the health care system guided by the hypothesis question which states that does racism have an impact on the Canadian healthcare system?
Concept Identification
Social stratification refers to a systematic way whereby the society ranks people based on various traits such as level of income, wealth, derived power and occupation (Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013). In the Canadian society, social strata are primarily categorized into three namely the lower class, middle class and upper class meaning that the society is mainly stratified on the level of income. Also, in Canada, race is highly linked to the level of income of many individuals. Therefore, the people of color have been documented to have lower income compared to their fellow Caucasian. The situation is worse considering immigrant people of color. Therefore, this implies that these individuals will occupy the lower strata in society with only a few being in the upper and middle strata. As such, through this social and economic deprivation, the Canadian people of color have limited economic ability to meet their health care insurance needs (Galabuzi, 2001). The situation is created by remuneration discrepancy where the people of color remuneration are lower than the rest of the general population. In addition, the highest level of unemployment is highest among the people of color. As such, this ensures that the poorer Canadian, who are mainly immigrants and people of color, have limited alternatives and must be served by what they can afford (Indigenous Health Working Group, 2016). As such, through racism, the people of color opportunities and ability to improve on their economic and social capital have been limited which consequently lead to the inability to improve their health (Indigenous Health Working Group, 2016). As such, these people will experience challenges in improving their living condition which is a major factor in promoting health.
Social justice concept means that every person, irrespective of color, must be given equal opportunities especially the individuals that are in greatest needs including access to health care system (Broadbent institute, 2012: Indigenous Health Working Group, 2016: Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013). However, as evident in the social stratification concept, the disparities in the levels of income has placed the people of color in a position of disadvantage with regard to access to healthcare system due to constrains in their ability to meet medical insurance and other healthcare costs as well as improving their living conditions. Therefore, the inequality promotes social injustice.
Urbanization refers to a society trend which leads to the proportion of people that are living in the urban centers increases while the population that is living in the rural area increases (Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013). Through the emergence of these urban centers, there have been physical changes that occur leading to expansion of the built environment thus destroying the natural environment. Consequently, it follows that as more urban centers are created, the ecosystem will continue to be distorted and destroyed thus displacing various people from their traditional habitats and economies in a process called alienation. Also, this expansion will be accompanied by industrialization. This has been the case with the Canadian aboriginal communities who have been alienated from their traditional habitats, lands and economies as industrialization and urbanization keep expanding. According to Epidemiologist Nancy Krieger, there are six ways through which racism hurts an individual’s health. In the sixth way, she argues that degradation of ecosystem and alienation from traditional habitats and economies negatively affect human health (Wellesley Institute, 2015). Therefore, through her argument, it is clear that the indigenous societies have been the worst affected by the process of urbanization thus their health is most likely affected.
Social Conflict Theory
According to the social conflict theory, members of a given society will have a varied amount of resources whereby the powerful will use their resources to exploit the less powerful. The theory depicts a society as a center of inequality that is characterized by conflict and social change (Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013). One such conflict will arise in the form of social discrimination. The issue of discrimination of people of color can be understood in terms of modernization theory within the context of social conflict theory. The theory refers to the process of modernization that a nation goes through as it transitions from a traditional society to a modern one which is mainly attributable to American social scientists of the 1950s. There are two versions of this theory which were mainly influenced by the political position of the United States and the then Soviet Union (Shareia, 2015). The Soviet Union was a communist state, therefore, advocated for the Marxists theory of development which states that if a nation is to develop, the country needed to take a communist approach thus eliminating the presence of private property which will minimize conflict among the various classes of people (Shareia, 2015). On the other hand, the capitalist version of modernization stated that the nation will attain democracy as they continued to grow. According to Samuel Huntington, social mobilization was a key factor in ensuring that the economic development was attainable in both versions (Shareia, 2015).
According to the capitalist theory of modernization, a country will undergo four states in development namely the traditional economy, pre-condition for taking off, take off, maturation and mass consumption (Shareia, 2015). Therefore, the discrimination that exists in the Canadian healthcare system is driven by the different levels at the level of society development. Therefore, various communities in Canada can be seen to be at different levels of development. For instance, the final stage of development is called maturity which is characterized by high consumptions where the citizens live in modem cities as opposed to rural areas, have a high life expectancy and their life is considerable comfortable. However, this is not true for all people in Canada because some of the communities are still in the take off stage. At this stage, these communities are experiencing a situation where their traditional attitudes and social institutions are being overcome and replaced with the western equivalent (Shareia, 2015). For instance, the nuclear family is replacing the extended family while ascription is being replaced by achievements (Shareia, 2015). As such, since the society in Canada is mainly stratified based on income levels, it follows that the modernization theory explains this phenomenon. Various races are at various stages of development with the majority of the Caucasian being at the maturity level while the people of color are at lower levels of development especially take off stage. The differentiation is mainly noticeable when attitudes are considered since most people of color are still attached to their traditional attributes compared to the general population. As such, this limits their economic mobility thus negatively affecting their level of income which is one factor that leads to people of color being discriminated by the health system due to the high costs associated with healthcare insurance. In addition, as people of color insists on holding to their traditional values, the development movement keeps expanding and will eventually dislodge them from their traditional economies thus compelling them to adopt this new way of life. Therefore, according to Nancy, this will negatively affect their health. According to conflict theory, this situation gives rise to a conflict since the healthcare system will work to the disadvantage of the lower strata and favors the high strata thus giving rise to a conflict due to the inequality which will lead to social change.
Conclusion
Discrimination has a negative effect on the Canadian healthcare system. Therefore, in order for the country to make progress and attain the universal healthcare system, the country needs to solve this underlying issue since it is a source of conflict in this society. Although the relationship is not outright, the essay has provided key issues in which discrimination undermines the health care system thus undermining the concept of social justice thus promoting social inequalities.
References
Broadbent Institute. (2012, October). A report on Canada’s economic and social Inequality. Retrieved April, 2016, from http://ywcacanada.ca/data/research_docs/00000292.pdf
Galabuzi, G. (2001). Canada Creeping Economic Apartheid: The economic segregation and social marginalization of racialized groups. Retrieved from http://www.socialjustice.org/pdfs/economicapartheid.pdf
Indigenous Health Working Group. (2016, February). Health and Health Care Implications of Systemic Racism on Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Retrieved April, 2016, from http://www.cfpc.ca/uploadedFiles/Resources/_PDFs/SystemicRacism_ENG.pdf
Macionis, J.J., Jansson, S.M., & Benoit, C.M. (2013). Society: The basics (5th Canadian ed.). Ontario, Canada: Pearson
Shareia, B. (2015). Theories of Development. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 76-89.
Wellesley Institute (2015). Colour Coded Health Care The impact of race and racism on Canadians’ Health. Retrieved 2016, from http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Colour-Coded-Health-Care.pdf
