Iris Mae A Villanueva III-CN Health Economics Reaction Paper no 1.

Health & Socio-Economic Status of Filipinos

The economic status of a population falls under the social factor. It is often referred to as Socio Economic Status. Statistics have shown that in populations where there are limited medical resources and where poverty is prevalent, there are high rates of mortality and morbidity within that population. It is also observable that in populations where there was an increase in income, there was also an increase in health status. But in societies of moderate income, that also experienced an increase in their economic status, a correlation with improved health status could not be deduced. This is thought to be due to an increase in living costs, and hence there is no extra money that one can spend on improving their health. The wages may have increased, but the cost of living is also increased, therefore there is no net gain in economic status. However, a decrease in income does not necessarily lead to a decrease in health status. Many people would have to opt for cheaper foods, which are most often more healthy for us and hence, leads to us maintaining or increasing our health status. Populations with high incomes can afford to buy take away foods and high fat foods rather often this is certainly not good for their health. Whereas populations with lower incomes must make sure they buy their basic staples first (i.e. Vegetables, fruits, breads). Hence, economic development may cause problems to ones health by increasing the fats in their diet. It has been discovered that the good health status of a population is not due to their how much money they spend on health, but rather how they allocate their economic funds. Populations that allocated more money to primary health care had reduced the incidence of mortality. It was found that spending money on primary health care (e.g. Education, preventative measures) could reach more people at a lower cost. Many societies focus on treating illness and diseases. The aim of Primary Health Care is to prevent disease and illness from occurring in the first place. Hence a small amount of money is required to educate or vaccinate etc. people. But many populations used to wait until the sickness developed before doing anything about it. Hence, some populations put a lot of their economic resources into improving health, but spent the money funding hospitals to cure people rather than educate. Operations are very costly. Therefore, populations who aim more towards Primary Health Care generally have a higher health status, even though they may not spend as much money on their health.

However, health status also depends on the availability of health services to a population. Populations that have easy access to health services tend to have a higher health status statistics show a decrease in mortality. Populations who do not spend as much money on health services are limiting the benefits of education, and as a result they are not aware of how they can modify their lifestyle. No matter how much money is spent on health, it is up to the individual of the population, to change their lifestyle habits in order to decrease the incidence of mortality and morbidity within a population. So ultimately, it is not the economic resources that contribute to a good health status, but rather how well educated the group is and their attitude towards the information they receive. If they act upon their knowledge, they will have a greater chance of avoiding illness. Therefore health status can improve without economic development in populations, but economic development may assist in bettering the populations health.