Introduction
Sociology is about unraveling certain fundamental laws pertaining to the governing of the organization of social relationships and societal phenomena with a view of understanding problems that are being experienced by society. In the recent past, there has been a major focus on sociology and its relatedness to health and medical sciences. So as to interpret social reality it is important to have an image of the various interrelationships that define human interaction. Sociological research is important in the observation and analysis of social phenomena; it entails critical examination, empirical and rational collection and analysis of various aspects to arrive at a given scientific knowledge. This paper intends to look at income, poverty and health insurance as sociological components. It will examine meanings, their interrelatedness, their impacts on human interactions and their effects to the whole society.
Income, poverty and health insurance as social phenomena is what this paper intends to look at. Generally what is being considered in this case is the relationship between unequal societies and health insurance. It has generally been stated that societies having unequal income distributions experience undesired health outcomes. It has been established that income has a positive relationship with the purchase decision for health insurance. On the other hand, increase in poverty is also viewed to be directly related with the increase in inequality of income. It is due to this that the need for a social insurance policy became relevant.
Literature Review
It has been recommended that the reduction of income inequality as well as the reduction in poverty should be addressed in a way that ensures the participation of citizens and their civic involvement. Social insurance is, therefore, one significant move of ensuring this. It refers to a type of insurance arrangement that involves the management and financing of pooled health risks of various people that are health care based. It involves individual contributions, contributions by enterprises, households and the government of a particular nation. One very important characteristic of this type of scheme is that the funds for the program are provided by the government from taxation and subsidies, employees and employers contributions and private contributions.
Social health insurance is based on a socially conscious policy whereby the total cost considered for ill health are taken to be a matter of concern for all members of the public and thus insurance is an undertaking to protect against such social costs as accidents or ill health. The costs incurred by an individual due to ill health are costs to be incurred by the whole society. This is because ill health causes the whole society to experience a loss due to the loss of time, wages and productivity apart from also inconveniencing the affected individual. The insurance scheme aims at overcoming the exclusion of the poor. The pool of contributors is large enough to ensure that costs are spread out so that each person pays a relatively low premium.
Health outcomes are linked with the organization of societies and allocation of resources. Improvements in a nation’s health are not based on advances in health care but the type of societies from which the nationals originate. Low income reduces people’s choices, for example, for purchase of insurance policy. It is income that offers a prerequisite for the acquisition of health care. Initially it had been assumed that there was no correlation between income inequality and health insurance, however, in the recent past these phenomena have been seen to be related. A shortfall in the contribution towards social insurance in the US at one time was said to be directly linked to the increasing rate of the nation’s wages going to those in higher income brackets.
Discussion
Poverty and income inequality are socio-economic problems known to have negative impacts on health and social outcomes. Increased inequality leads to low social health insurance policies. This is simply through the effect on taxation for purposes of a social security health insurance scheme, that is inequality leads to a smaller tax bases and hence limited funds for such health insurance schemes. It has been confirmed from research that the assessment of health outcomes such as purchase of a health insurance scheme is dependent more on measures of inequality sensitive to the income distribution’s bottom end and measures of poverty that show depth of poverty. This is because people have a tendency to concentrate more on the disparity of income among the poor than the inequality within the whole society in the assessment of health variables.
Because of this kind of existent relationship between poverty and income inequality on health insurance, it should be the initiative of all individuals to provide the necessary support in overcoming socioeconomic inequalities as well as through individual agency. Governments of various countries should also undertake to make political decisions aimed at increasing social investment so as to realize intergenerational social, economic and health benefits. The aim for these nations should be the reorganization of their current systems for the provision of minimum social security to the citizenry.
Conclusion
Health insurance schemes are deemed to be among the best mechanisms available for the financing of health care needs. It is therefore very important that each and every individual in society is covered with such a scheme. Poverty and income inequality should not be allowed to limit access to such vital schemes. All efforts should be aimed at ensuring the economy is rid of such undesirable socioeconomic inequalities.
Works Cited
Goozner, Merril. How Income Inequality Undermines Social Security. Washington DC, 1 November 2011.
Kawachi, Ichiro and S V Subramanian. "Income Inequality and Health: What Have We Learned So Far?" 3 November 2003. http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org. 17 April 2012
Raphael, Dennis. Poverty, Income Inequality, and Health in Canada. Ottawa: CSJ Foundation for Research and Education, 2002.
