essay on health vs money

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The costs of inequality: Money = quality health care = longer life

Federal insurance has helped many, but system’s holes limit gains, Harvard analysts say

Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

Fourth in a series on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America’s most vexing problems.

If you want to get an idea of the gap between the world’s sickest and healthiest people, don’t fly to a faraway land. Just look around the United States.

Health inequality is part of American life, so deeply entangled with other social problems — disparities in income , education , housing, race, gender, and even geography — that analysts have trouble saying which factors are cause and which are effect. The confusing result, they say, is a massive chicken-and-egg puzzle, its solution reaching beyond just health care. Because of that, everyday realities often determine whether people live in health or infirmity, to a ripe old age or early death.

“There are huge inequalities in this country that often get overlooked … If you want to observe the problems of poverty and inequality, you don’t need to travel all the way to Malawi. You can go to a rural house in America,” said Ichiro Kawachi, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology and chair of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “If you’re born a black man in, let’s say, New Orleans Parish, your average life expectancy is worse than the male average of countries that are much poorer than America.”

Scholars say that inequality in health is actually three related problems. The first, and most critical, involves disparities in health itself: rates of asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, drug abuse, violence, and other afflictions. The second problem involves disparities in care, including access to hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices, skilled professionals, medical technology, essential medicine, and proper procedures to deal with illness and disease. The third problem, one that has grabbed national headlines in recent years, is inequality in health insurance, the financial means to pay for the care people get to stay well.

The three problems, scholars say, require interlaced solutions. President Obama’s signature health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), has taken important strides in narrowing the gap in health insurance coverage, but those gains so far have translated to limited advances in ensuring access to quality medical care and even less progress in making diverse groups equally healthy.

“That’s an area where there’s less progress and more disappointment,” said John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health at the Harvard Chan School. McDonough has worked on health care reform both in Massachusetts, which created the model for national care, and at the federal level.

Disparities are built into the health care landscape, but there has been great progress in recent decades, according to S.V. Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at the Harvard Chan School and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies . Life expectancy is increasing for African-Americans and the poor, albeit at a lower rate than for wealthy whites. Although stark disparities remain, the overall health picture in this country is one of improvement, analysts say.

“I sometimes feel that the public health narrative is all doom and gloom, but that’s inaccurate,” Subramanian said.

Still, the remaining disparities are bell-clear in one of the bluntest measures of health: life expectancy, which varies, depending on a resident’s race and ethnicity, as much as 30 years between the richest and poorest U.S. counties. That gap, Kawachi said, covers about two-thirds of the range seen between the world’s healthiest and unhealthiest populations.

In addition, a new study by the Brookings Institution found that the gap has widened considerably. An upper-income man born in 1920, for example, could expect to live five years longer than someone at the lower end of the income spectrum. But for men born in 1940, that life-expectancy divide based on income has more than doubled, to 12 years.

Health disparities are a major reason why U.S. life expectancy trails many peer nations, Kawachi said. According to a 2014 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), U.S. life expectancy in 2012 was 78.7 years, 27th out of the group’s 34 industrialized democracies.

The fault line of income, and care

Health disparities form along several societal fault lines, but analysts say the deepest and most persistent divide surrounds income. America’s poor — of any race or ethnicity — are sicker than well-off Americans, Kawachi said. They get substandard care, live in poor housing and degraded environments, and have higher rates of suicide, violence, drug overdose, accidents, and smoking.

“It’s not only a question of racial disparities,” Kawachi said. “At the root of it are unequal economic opportunities, unequal education, and despair.”

Disparities due to poverty hurt racial and ethnic minorities more than other groups because they make up a large proportion of the poor. Not only do they have more ailments, but they often get worse care.

“If you’re having a heart attack, there are very standardized protocols. If you’re African-American, you’re less likely to get those, even with the same health insurance, even with the same presentation,” said Ashish Jha, the K.T. Li Professor of International Health, professor of medicine, and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “It’s things like that that trouble us.”

Disparities in health, Jha said, begin at birth for many African-Americans and persist through life.

“One thing we hoped is that the health care system would be part of the solution. What we find, over and over, is that not only does it not do that consistently, sometimes it makes things worse,” Jha said. “It’s obviously deeply disappointing.”

Though health professionals generally care deeply about their poor and minority patients, the problem nonetheless may be rooted in racism, according to David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard Chan School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Williams, along with colleague Ronald Wyatt, cited a 2003 Institute of Medicine report that labeled widespread “implicit bias” for differences in the care that African-Americans and other minorities receive. They said that substandard care leads to an estimated 260 premature African-American deaths each day.

“Insurance is not just supposed to get you access to care, it’s supposed to keep you from getting evicted from your apartment because you paid your hospital bill instead of your rent.” Katherine Baicker

“African-American individuals and those in other minority groups receive fewer procedures and poorer-quality medical care than white individuals,” Williams and Wyatt wrote. “These differences existed even after statistical adjustment for variations in health insurance, stage and severity of disease, income or education, comorbid disease, and the type of health care facility.”

The result of that disparity and others fuels another one: shorter life spans for African-Americans, according to Thomas McGuire, professor of health economics in Harvard Medical School’s (HMS) Department of Health Care Policy.

“In terms of health, there’s approximately a five-year penalty for being African-American compared to being a white male,” McGuire said.

While poverty, race, and ethnicity are key divides between wellness and ill health, another factor — often ignored — is geography, according to Katherine Baicker, C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics at the Harvard Chan School and acting chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Health disparities exist regionally across America — Southern states, for example, have poorer care, according to a 2014 government report. There also are smaller pockets of poverty, such as depressed urban areas.

“I think an important factor that is sometimes overlooked is there are a lot of observed disparities in care … based on income, race, or ethnicity, that are attributable to the quality of care in some parts of the country lagging behind other parts of the country,” Baicker said. “So it’s as much about where you live as what your characteristics are.”

Necessary, but not sufficient

Easily the most significant recent step to lessen health disparities came when Congress passed the ACA in 2010. The law requires people above a certain income to have health insurance, and it expands the Medicaid program to cover those who can’t afford it. A 2012 Supreme Court ruling created a significant pothole on the road to universal coverage, however, allowing states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion. That left 4 million poor Americans in 20 states ineligible and on their own.

“Under the ACA, we created a new structure where just about every American citizen and legal resident has access to some kind of affordable health insurance coverage, except for poor adults in states that have not accepted Medicaid expansion under the ACA,” McDonough said.

Despite that large pool of uncovered people, McDonough said, the ACA has clearly reduced health inequalities in much of the nation, particularly for minority and ethnic groups.

“The ACA has succeeded in taking a major step forward in reducing inequalities as pertains to access in health insurance coverage,” McDonough said. “It has not solved it, but it’s a major step forward.”

The act also has reduced disparities in medical care and in health status, according to McDonough and McGuire. By requiring insurance companies to cover people regardless of pre-existing conditions, it has worked to level the financial gap between the sick and the well.

Though researchers will require time to prove whether illness and chronic disease have dropped as a result, early studies — including one in 2012 by Benjamin Sommers and another last September led by Joshua Salomon, both at the Harvard Chan School — indicate that health insurance coverage can prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths and prompt more than 650,000 people to control chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Substandard care leads to 260 premature African-American deaths daily.

“What’s fairly indisputable is that by expanding coverage to so many millions of otherwise uninsured Americans, we’re saving lives,” McDonough said.

McDonough said that Oregon presented researchers, led by the Chan School’s Baicker and Amy Finkelstein at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a natural experiment when it used a lottery to expand its Medicaid program in 2008. The lottery was a randomized control designed to show that people newly covered by Medicaid took advantage of more preventive care, prescription drugs, and doctors’ office visits to stay healthy, as well as more hospital stays and emergency department visits to treat worsening conditions. Their self-reported access to care and quality of care both rose. In addition, they reported better health and lower rates of depression.

The study did not show improvement in several measures of health involving chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, Baicker said. But there was progress in improving patients’ financial stability. People covered by Medicaid had far fewer bills sent to collectors, and catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenses were virtually eliminated.

“Having insurance improved access to care. It also provided financial protection, which is a component of insurance that people don’t talk about but which is really important,” Baicker said. “Insurance is not just supposed to get you access to care; it’s supposed to keep you from getting evicted from your apartment because you paid your hospital bill instead of your rent.”

While the ACA was designed to provide that stability nationally, it isn’t perfect, Jha said, and the endless partisan debate surrounding it in Washington, D.C., and in some states has blocked needed fixes, according to analysts. One provision of the measure that Jha finds troubling was supposed to improve patient care by penalizing hospitals with poor patient outcomes. But that provision, he said, backfires where large, urban, safety-net hospitals are involved. Since they serve a disproportionate number of poor people with chronic ailments, they often have worse outcomes that are unrelated to care.

“I do worry that it will worsen disparities,” Jha said. “There’s good empirical data; the penalties are disproportionately targeting safety-net” hospitals.

A multipronged approach

While the ACA was a giant step in bridging America’s health divide, analysts say that merely providing health insurance isn’t enough. Insurance helps equalize access to care, but disparities remain in the quality of that care. However, there are levers to tackle that problem too, according to Amitabh Chandra, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).

Identifying poor-quality facilities provides an opportunity for rapid improvement by bringing best practices to bear, Chandra said. Baicker agreed, saying such targeted interventions can prove both effective and inexpensive.

“Part of it is about resources,” Baicker said. “There’s also fairly strong evidence that quality could be improved without costing a lot of money in some places, where best practices are not being implemented. Sometimes, it’s not clear what the right thing to do is. But sometimes it is, and our system does not generate high-quality care and best practices nearly as consistently as we would like it to.”

Government-led, policy-driven shifts on health care have led to dramatic improvements in the past and could again, Chandra said. When U.S. hospitals were desegregated in the 1960s, there was “overnight” improvement in African-American infant mortality. Similarly, Chandra said, new technology could help disadvantaged populations by improving their care condition by condition. The discovery of surfactants, for example, helped all premature babies breathe better, but benefitted African-American babies in particular because they were more often premature.

Similarly, McGuire said, attitudinal health reforms, such as against stereotypes and race-related disparities, could create a wide ripple effect. “Activation” training, during which patients from disadvantaged populations are encouraged to question physicians and immerse themselves in their own care, could improve their interactions in everyday life as well.

“The next time they interact with someone outside the health care system, this is going to help them there, too,” McGuire said.

Targeting the factors influencing health

While policy shifts can be powerful tools against health inequities, Subramanian said that such initiatives should be aimed not at outcomes, but earlier in the chain at the factors influencing health. “From a health perspective, the most important thing to think about would be inequalities in opportunities that are health-promoting, rather than inequalities in health outcomes per se,” Subramanian said.

Another helpful policy change would relax America’s relatively stingy family-leave and sick-time policies, Kawachi said.

“If you’re having a heart attack, there are very standardized protocols. If you’re African-American, you’re less likely to get those, even with the same health insurance, even with the same presentation.” Ashish Jha

Among its less-publicized features, the ACA promotes “accountable care organizations,” whose financial rewards are linked to better patient outcomes rather than to just providing treatment, thereby linking financial success to patient health.

“Many health care providers are acutely aware of the inadequacy of the office visit alone to improve population health,” Baicker said. “They sometimes lack flexibility [to try new things and] they sometimes lack resources. To the extent that they can be given flexibility, coupled with responsibility [for population health], that’s an avenue toward better disease management and health promotion.”

But eliminating health disparities outright remains problematic because some causes lie outside the care system. Poor education often leads to low-wage jobs, leading to substandard housing and poor diets and smoking, further leading to diabetes and asthma. So any overarching solution would require massive breadth.

“Health insurance affects health care. Health care affects health. But there are other things that affect health,” Baicker said, including social determinants, quality food, proper exercise, and wise behavior. “Being poor is really hard on your health in and of itself. Then having limited access to health care is another big hit. But there are lots of things about poverty that are harmful to health that really have nothing to do with health care per se.”

Addressing those social and behavioral factors would require government officials and community leaders to think innovatively and cooperatively about the everyday realities that affect health, even down to the designs of neighborhoods and transportation systems. There would have to be more flexibility for health care spending to help, for example, an asthmatic child whose medication might be covered but whose need for an air conditioner is not. Physicians would need to be aware of nonmedical pressures that patients face after leaving their offices that might, for instance, leave them without transportation to follow-up appointments or to pharmacies for medicine. Partner organizations would need to help meet routine needs by such things as grocery shopping and cooking for postoperative patients who are well enough to go home, but can’t yet push carts down store aisles.

“It’s not just about what we do in the hospital, what we do in the doctor’s office. It’s about all the things that happen outside of it,” Jha said. “We’ve come to realize that whole processes are important … not just prescribing right.”

Nancy Oriol, HMS dean of students, has been part of a 24-year experiment to hurdle some of those barriers, seeing patients as whole people and meeting them literally where they live.

As director of obstetric anesthesia for Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the 1980s, Oriol became concerned about infant mortality rates in the poor neighborhoods near Boston’s Longwood section, where HMS and several of its most prominent affiliate hospitals are located.

She and Cheryl Dorsey, then a third-year medical student, began to develop a mobile clinic, the Family Van, that provides basic health education, screenings, and referrals to residents of poor neighborhoods. Though Oriol no longer works on van issues day-to-day, she is probing how the nation’s estimated 2,000 mobile clinics can fill a gap in America’s health care network.

Early on, she hoped that the Family Van would become obsolete as the health care system improved. But now Oriol sees the mobile clinics as an emerging sector, a permanent player with their own mission.

“I actually have come to believe that mobile clinics are not a bridge over a gap, but a different form of health care,” Oriol said. “It is the health care that brings you health in the same place that you live your life.”

60 million with little primary care

In another example of fresh thinking, at HMS’s five-year-old Center for Primary Care, co-director Andrew Ellner, an assistant professor of medicine, is tackling a root cause of health disparities: poor primary care.

According to a 2009 report by the National Association of Community Health Centers, a whopping 60 million Americans lack adequate access to primary care. Ellner said that even people who do have access are often poorly served by what they get.

“I think the lack of primary care certainly is part of the problem, but it is also a reflection of the problem,” Ellner said. “There’s less primary care because there’s less financing available to offer care to disadvantaged patient populations.”

Good primary care requires correct responses to illnesses, injuries, and other conditions, coupled with strong preventive medicine, including administering vaccines and routine screenings, while encouraging healthy diet and exercise. Another critical factor, Ellner said, is properly coordinating care with other providers, including specialists, therapists, and technicians.

“That’s especially important in the U.S. because the health care system is fragmented, and people can get lost. We have to make sure they don’t fall through the cracks,” he said. “It’s definitely part of the solution. Primary care is really on the front lines of health care. It’s a critical factor in making the health system work — not just in providing care, but also in making it accessible to people.”

Internationally, the United States has a reputation as a country with poor primary care. That reality is a significant factor in high health care costs, even though, Ellner said, there are pockets of excellence that provide primary care as good as anywhere in the world. The challenge, he said, is to scale up those examples nationally and make them the rule rather than the exception.

A team approach to care

In another shift, the HMS center has partnered with seven Harvard-affiliated health systems to install a team-based approach to care. The teams, which are being tested in 28 Boston-area practices serving 300,000 patients, include physicians, nurses, social workers, community health workers, and pharmacy technicians.

“Physicians are important, but a lot of primary-care functions should be filled by non-physicians,” Ellner said. “The real fix [to U.S. primary care] will be, over time, to change the ratio of primary care and specialist physicians … [and] to fundamentally change the organization of primary care into a team approach that allows doctors to focus on the parts of health care for which they are uniquely trained: complex diagnosis and management.”

Possible solutions to health care inequality

• Earlier diagnoses of ailments
• Universal health insurance
• Better patient education
• More preventive care
• Fewer penalties on safety-net hospitals
• Monitoring, upgrading struggling facilities
• Wider access to technology
• Stronger primary care
• Broader family-, sick-leave policies
• Social systems supporting health
• Team approaches to care

Larger social factors play a role in health. Kawachi said studies have shown that preschool programs deliver $1.17 of benefits for each $1 invested. Since poverty is a root cause of health disparities, an increase in the federal minimum wage — which at $7.25 an hour leaves a family of four well below the federal poverty line ― would prove a health boon as well, he said.

The ACA recognizes the need to address the exterior causes of health disparities, McDonough said, but those aspects of the law haven’t been taken seriously. For instance, political opponents have attacked the $15 million Prevention and Public Health Trust Fund that provides grants to address poor housing, air quality, and lack of exercise, calling the spending wasteful. Legislators have cut a third of its funds.

“It has been under constant, ruthless assault by opponents of the law as fluff, as paying for jungle gym sets,” McDonough said. “Public health and public health programs have always taken a beating in difficult economic times. There was hope that the ACA represented the dawn of a new day and we would break out of that cycle. That hasn’t happened.”

Despite the endless political tug-of-war over the ACA , Baicker believes that there will be more opportunities soon to experiment with health care reforms, if only to slow cost increases, which have picked up speed.

“There are a lot of positive developments, but I don’t think anybody would argue that we solved this problem,” Baicker said. “There are serious financial problems with the health care system that necessitate bigger change than we’ve seen so far.”

Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.

Next Tuesday: Inequality in law

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Health Is Wealth Essay for Students and Children

500+ words health is wealth essay.

Growing up you might have heard the term ‘Health is Wealth’, but its essential meaning is still not clear to most people. Generally, people confuse good health with being free of any kind of illness. While it may be part of the case, it is not entirely what good health is all about. In other words, to lead a healthy life , a person must be fit and fine both physically and mentally. For instance, if you are constantly eating junk food yet you do not have any disease, it does not make you healthy. You are not consuming healthy food which naturally means you are not healthy, just surviving. Therefore, to actually live and not merely survive, you need to have the basic essentials that make up for a healthy lifestyle.

Introduction

Life is about striking a balance between certain fundamental parts of life. Health is one of these aspects. We value health in the same way that we value time once we have lost it. We cannot rewind time, but the good news is that we can regain health with some effort. A person in good physical and mental health may appreciate the world to the fullest and meet life’s problems with ease and comfort. Health is riches implies that health is a priceless asset rather than money or ownership of material possessions. There is no point in having money if you don’t have good health.

Key Elements Of A Healthy Lifestyle

If you wish to acquire a healthy lifestyle, you will certainly have to make some changes in your life. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle demands consistent habits and disciplined life. There are various good habits that you can adopt like exercising regularly which will maintain your physical fitness. It also affects your mental health as when your appearance enhances, your confidence will automatically get boosted.

To live a healthy life, one must make some lifestyle modifications. These modifications can include changes to your food habits, sleeping routines, and lifestyle. You should eat a well-balanced, nutrient-dense diet for your physical wellness.

Further, it will prevent obesity and help you burn out extra fat from your body. After that, a balanced diet is of great importance. When you intake appropriate amounts of nutrition, vitamins, proteins, calories and more, your immune system will strengthen. This will, in turn, help you fight off diseases powerfully resulting in a disease-free life.

Above all, cleanliness plays a significant role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Your balanced diet and regular exercise will be completely useless if you live in an unhealthy environment. One must always maintain cleanliness in their surroundings so as to avoid the risk of catching communicable diseases.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Benefits Of A Healthy Lifestyle

As it is clear by now, good health is a luxury which everyone wants but some of them cannot afford. This point itself states the importance of a healthy lifestyle. When a person leads a healthy lifestyle, he/she will be free from the tension of seeking medical attention every now and then.

On the contrary, if you have poor health, you will usually spend your time in a hospital and the bills will take away your mental peace. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle means you will be able to enjoy your life freely. Similarly, when you have a relaxed mind at all times, you will be able to keep your loved ones happy. A healthy individual is more likely to fulfil all of his goals because he can easily focus on them and has the energy to complete them. This is why the proverb “Health is Wealth” carries so much weight.

A socially healthy individual is one who is able to interact effectively and readily connect with others. Without his ego, he can easily blend with the person in front of him, exuding a nice feeling and energy.

Every human being should participate in sports and activities to get away from the monotony of daily life. It is because sports and games assist in instilling a sense of oneness in people, build leadership skills, and make a person absolutely disciplined.

Moreover, a healthy lifestyle will push you to do better in life and motivate you to achieve higher targets. It usually happens that people who are extremely wealthy in terms of money often lack good health. This just proves that all the riches in the world will do you no good if there is an absence of a healthy lifestyle.

In short, healthy life is the highest blessing that must not be taken for granted. It is truly the source of all happiness. Money may buy you all the luxuries in the world but it cannot buy you good health. You are solely responsible for that, so for your well-being and happiness, it is better to switch to a healthy lifestyle.

Good Health for Children

Childhood is an ideal period to inculcate healthy behaviours in children. Children’s health is determined by a variety of factors, including diet, hydration, sleep schedule, hygiene, family time, doctor visits, and physical exercise. Following are a few key points and health tips that parents should remember for their children:

• Never allow your children to get by without nutritious food. Fruits and vegetables are essential.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, therefore teach them to frequently wash their hands and feet.
• Sleep is essential for your child.
• Make it a habit for them to drink plenty of water.
• Encourage physical activity and sports.
• Allow them enough time to sleep.
• It is critical to visit the doctor on a regular basis for checks.

Parents frequently focus solely on their children’s physical requirements. They dress up their children’s wounds and injuries and provide them with good food. However, they frequently fail to detect their child’s deteriorating mental health. This is because they do not believe that mental health is important.

Few Lines on Health is Wealth Essay for Students

• A state of physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being is referred to as health. And all of this is linked to one another.
• Stress, worry, and tension are the leading causes of illness and disease in today’s world. When these three factors are present for an extended period of time, they can result in a variety of mental difficulties, which can lead to physical and emotional illnesses. As a result, taking care of your own health is critical.
• Unhealthy food or contaminated water, packed and processed food and beverages, unsanitary living conditions, not getting enough sleep, and a lack of physical activity are some of the other primary causes of health deterioration.
• A well-balanced diet combined with adequate exercise and hygienic habits, as well as a clean environment, can enhance immunity and equip a person to fight most diseases.
• A healthy body and mind are capable of achieving things that a sick body and mind are incapable of achieving, including happiness.
• It is also vital to seek medical and professional assistance when necessary because health is our most valuable asset.
• Activities such as playing an instrument, playing games, or reading provide the brain with the required exercise it requires to improve health.

Maintaining healthy behaviours improves one’s outlook on life and contributes to longevity as well as success.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: What are the basic essentials of a healthy life? Answer: A healthy life requires regular exercise, a balanced diet, a clean environment, and good habits.

Question 2: How can a healthy life be beneficial? Answer: A healthy lifestyle can benefit you in various ways. You will lead a happier life free from any type of disease. Moreover, it will also enhance your state of mind.

Question 3: When is World Health Day celebrated?

Answer: Since 1950, World Health Day has been observed on the 7th of April by the World Health Organization (WHO), after a decision made at the first Health Assembly in 1948. It is observed to raise awareness about people’s overall health and well-being around the world.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Healthy Lifestyle — Health is Wealth: the Relationship Between Well-being and Prosperity

Health is Wealth: The Relationship Between Well-being and Prosperity

• Categories: Healthy Lifestyle Wealth

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Words: 617 |

Published: Sep 1, 2023

Words: 617 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The precious asset of well-being, prosperity through productivity, the cost of illness: financial and emotional strain, investing in long-term well-being, in conclusion.

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Exploring the Important Link Between Health and Wealth

November 5, 2019  • Rhett Buttle & Financial Security Program

Over the past several months, the Aspen Institute’s prestigious programs, the Financial Security Program and the Health, Medicine and Society Program, embarked on a unique collaboration to explore the link between good health and financial wellbeing.

The connection between financial wellness and health is significant, with evidence showing that increased financial security is linked to improved health outcomes and improved quality of life. What’s more, finance and health are among the fastest-growing sectors of the economy — in the US, they comprise more than 40 percent of GDP — and both are targets of innovation.

Research has found that more than half of an individual’s life expectancy in the DC region could be explained by education and economic factors. According to another report, income growth not only correlates to life expectancy increases, but also to a decrease in the risk of chronic illness and an increase in access to resources that promote longevity and health. Other research has shown that financial insecurity is a serious source of mental stress, reducing an individual’s productivity and job performance. And yet more research notes that poor physical health directly impacts financial stability, increasing the likelihood of personal bankruptcy from medical debt.

Stakeholders across public, private, and philanthropic sectors are increasingly convinced of the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach that would result in solutions designed to tackle issues related to both economic and health inequality. Some of these efforts are being driven by the changes we are seeing in our economy — for example, the growth of the “gig” economy, high levels of debt, record income disparities, and challenges to retirement security that are all leaving their mark on an individual’s health. With economic structures in transition, entrepreneurs are beginning to link up with care providers and health advocates are promoting microenterprise. So, what does the link between health and wealth mean in this evolving economy?

Given these developments and questions, our collaboration sought to explore the connection between these two fields. Our work has manifested itself in two ways.

A Set of Exploratory Roundtables

First, the programs co-hosted a set of roundtables — one in Washington, DC, and one in San Francisco, CA — with key stakeholders from both fields. Each roundtable included approximately 20 to 30 sharp minds, including public health, healthcare, and financial security leaders from across academia, business, community-based and advocacy organizations, and other appropriate experts. The roundtables began a necessary dialogue, promoted an open space, and fostered trust in order to identify and discover areas of partnership.

Integrating Health & Wealth into the Aspen Ideas Festival

In addition to the roundtables, we brought the conversation to Aspen Ideas: Health (the three-day opening event of the Aspen Ideas Festival). There, we produced a track (or “theme”) focused exclusively on Health & Wealth. Content included a conversation with the US Surgeon General and the President of the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia, who explored ways that their jobs and missions are both fundamentally geared toward advancing the health of America’s families, communities, and economy. We also featured several business leaders who spoke to the business case for thinking about health and wealth together, and how both sectors can do more to ensure that the end goal of business aligns with helping households experience greater wellbeing. Another panel looked at how a living wage can create better health outcomes, and another explored how the growing burden of medical debt is one of the most common financial burdens for Americans. Attendees left increasingly aware that health and financial wellness are fundamentally linked.

What’s Next

These times require an authentic conversation about the substantial financial challenges facing our families — and increasing financial insecurity more broadly. Examining the connection between health and financial security is at the heart of this — and, we believe, the right place to start.

It is our hope that in partnership with several of the Institute’s policy programs — the Financial Security Program and the Health, Medicine and Society Program — we can explore an effort that combines each program’s networks, learnings, and expertise. Working together, the programs can move forward with the opportunity to examine the common essential building blocks of healthcare, medicine, wellness, and financial well-being. The true power in this effort comes from the ability to examine problems in new ways, integrate networks, and explore innovative solutions that stem from real collaboration. Through public convenings — and intensive, off-the-record dialogues with leaders from a wide cross-section of private, public, and nonprofit institutions — the Aspen Institute can play a lead role in advancing a conversation on how to improve health and wealth in tandem.

Long-lasting improvement on the issues of financial and health inequality requires multidisciplinary solutions that embrace the inter-relatedness of these issues. Improving health outcomes will allow people to live longer and healthier lives, and participate more fully in the economy. Coming together with a diverse set of committed leaders, we can effect change and improve the lives of millions.

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Consumer Behavior

Health vs. wealth: how the pandemic changed our priorities, shopping, sharing, and savoring: balancing health and wealth..

Posted June 6, 2022 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• The COVID-19 pandemic has uniquely impacted the value we place on both money and materialism.
• The pandemic produced materialistic values, such as consuming media, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and depressed mood.
• Contrary to expectations, focus on money actually decreased during the course of the pandemic.

During the early months of 2020, many people were reminded through both personal experience and global news reports of the critical importance of maintaining good health. As the pandemic progressed, we began to ask: but at what cost? We recognized that all the money in the world cannot buy good health, although good insurance helps. Flash forward several years, and we have clarified our priorities through our evolving practices of saving, sharing, and spending. As many people suspected, the COVID-19 pandemic has uniquely impacted the value we place on both money and materialism .

Shopping, Sharing, and Savoring

Olaya Moldes et al. (2022) examined how people changed their priorities over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 Focusing largely on money and materialism, they made some interesting observations that demonstrate how privately evolving priorities can impact public spending behavior.

Balancing Health and Wealth

Moldes et al. note that the pandemic produced an increase in the types of factors that usually accompany an endorsement of materialistic values, such as consuming more media, anxiety , stress , loneliness , and depressed mood. Although they found that increases in media consumption, anxiety, and stress predicted levels of materialism to an extent, they found such effects to be limited. Contrary to expectations, they found that our focus on money actually decreased during the course of the pandemic.

Moldes et al. recognized a research-based definition of materialism as “individual differences in people's long-term endorsement of values, goals , and associated beliefs that center on the importance of acquiring money and possessions that convey status” (Dittmar et al., 2014). They note that wealth and consumption are thought to be tied to personal achievement and happiness —even though materialism has been linked to lower well-being and higher degrees of compulsive buying. They also note that research shows that advocating materialistic values is influenced by a higher amount of media consumption as well as social and personal insecurities and negative emotions.

But, overall, Moldes et al. explained that their observed decrease in the importance people placed on money might be due to the COVID-19–triggered alterations in the values people held—which were in the opposite direction than were predicted. They also found that, contrary to expectations, people decreased the level of importance they placed on economic resources during the outbreak, despite experiencing more factors that facilitate and promote materialism. They note that these results may be due to prioritizing personal health and well-being, or emerging “collective social identities that promote social solidarity and cooperation ,” that have previously been observed in times of emergencies and environmental disasters—thus decreasing our focus on material and economic resources.

Resignation and Revival

Moldes et al. note that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways in which people think about money. Commenting on what has been dubbed “The Great Resignation” observed in the United States and the United Kingdom, they note that exiting the workforce has been likely fueled by reflecting on life priorities during the pandemic.

One interesting point, however, was that, apparently, during the pandemic, people found money to be less important, despite an increase in factors that endorse materialism. Moldes et al. observed an overall decrease in reported pandemic shopping behaviors, but a higher instance of purchasing as a coping mechanism to deal with negative emotions and in pursuit of well-being.

As we move forward seeking to prioritize both health and wealth, we have gained a greater appreciation of the ageless adage that the most precious things in life are free.

1. Moldes, Olaya, Denitsa Dineva, and Lisbeth Ku. 2022. “Has the Covid‐19 Pandemic Made Us More Materialistic? The Effect of Covid‐19 and Lockdown Restrictions on the Endorsement of Materialism.” Psychology & Marketing, January. doi:10.1002/mar.21627.

Wendy L. Patrick, J.D., Ph.D., is a career trial attorney, behavioral analyst, author of Red Flags , and co-author of Reading People .

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More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

When we wonder whether money can buy happiness, we may consider the luxuries it provides, like expensive dinners and lavish vacations. But cash is key in another important way: It helps people avoid many of the day-to-day hassles that cause stress, new research shows.

Money can provide calm and control, allowing us to buy our way out of unforeseen bumps in the road, whether it’s a small nuisance, like dodging a rainstorm by ordering up an Uber, or a bigger worry, like handling an unexpected hospital bill, says Harvard Business School professor Jon Jachimowicz.

“If we only focus on the happiness that money can bring, I think we are missing something,” says Jachimowicz, an assistant professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at HBS. “We also need to think about all of the worries that it can free us from.”

The idea that money can reduce stress in everyday life and make people happier impacts not only the poor, but also more affluent Americans living at the edge of their means in a bumpy economy. Indeed, in 2019, one in every four Americans faced financial scarcity, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The findings are particularly important now, as inflation eats into the ability of many Americans to afford basic necessities like food and gas, and COVID-19 continues to disrupt the job market.

Buying less stress

The inspiration for researching how money alleviates hardships came from advice that Jachimowicz’s father gave him. After years of living as a struggling graduate student, Jachimowicz received his appointment at HBS and the financial stability that came with it.

“My father said to me, ‘You are going to have to learn how to spend money to fix problems.’” The idea stuck with Jachimowicz, causing him to think differently about even the everyday misfortunes that we all face.

To test the relationship between cash and life satisfaction, Jachimowicz and his colleagues from the University of Southern California, Groningen University, and Columbia Business School conducted a series of experiments, which are outlined in a forthcoming paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science , The Sharp Spikes of Poverty: Financial Scarcity Is Related to Higher Levels of Distress Intensity in Daily Life .

Higher income amounts to lower stress

In one study, 522 participants kept a diary for 30 days, tracking daily events and their emotional responses to them. Participants’ incomes in the previous year ranged from less than $10,000 to $150,000 or more. They found:

• Money reduces intense stress: There was no significant difference in how often the participants experienced distressing events—no matter their income, they recorded a similar number of daily frustrations. But those with higher incomes experienced less negative intensity from those events.
• More money brings greater control : Those with higher incomes felt they had more control over negative events and that control reduced their stress. People with ample incomes felt more agency to deal with whatever hassles may arise.
• Higher incomes lead to higher life satisfaction: People with higher incomes were generally more satisfied with their lives.

“It’s not that rich people don’t have problems,” Jachimowicz says, “but having money allows you to fix problems and resolve them more quickly.”

Why cash matters

In another study, researchers presented about 400 participants with daily dilemmas, like finding time to cook meals, getting around in an area with poor public transportation, or working from home among children in tight spaces. They then asked how participants would solve the problem, either using cash to resolve it, or asking friends and family for assistance. The results showed:

• People lean on family and friends regardless of income: Jachimowicz and his colleagues found that there was no difference in how often people suggested turning to friends and family for help—for example, by asking a friend for a ride or asking a family member to help with childcare or dinner.
• Cash is the answer for people with money: The higher a person’s income, however, the more likely they were to suggest money as a solution to a hassle, for example, by calling an Uber or ordering takeout.

While such results might be expected, Jachimowicz says, people may not consider the extent to which the daily hassles we all face create more stress for cash-strapped individuals—or the way a lack of cash may tax social relationships if people are always asking family and friends for help, rather than using their own money to solve a problem.

“The question is, when problems come your way, to what extent do you feel like you can deal with them, that you can walk through life and know everything is going to be OK,” Jachimowicz says.

Breaking the ‘shame spiral’

In another recent paper , Jachimowicz and colleagues found that people experiencing financial difficulties experience shame, which leads them to avoid dealing with their problems and often makes them worse. Such “shame spirals” stem from a perception that people are to blame for their own lack of money, rather than external environmental and societal factors, the research team says.

“We have normalized this idea that when you are poor, it’s your fault and so you should be ashamed of it,” Jachimowicz says. “At the same time, we’ve structured society in a way that makes it really hard on people who are poor.”

For example, Jachimowicz says, public transportation is often inaccessible and expensive, which affects people who can’t afford cars, and tardy policies at work often penalize people on the lowest end of the pay scale. Changing those deeply-engrained structures—and the way many of us think about financial difficulties—is crucial.

After all, society as a whole may feel the ripple effects of the financial hardships some people face, since financial strain is linked with lower job performance, problems with long-term decision-making, and difficulty with meaningful relationships, the research says. Ultimately, Jachimowicz hopes his work can prompt thinking about systemic change.

“People who are poor should feel like they have some control over their lives, too. Why is that a luxury we only afford to rich people?” Jachimowicz says. “We have to structure organizations and institutions to empower everyone.”

[Image: iStockphoto/mihtiander]

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How Money Changes the Way You Think and Feel

The term “affluenza”—a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, defined as a “painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste, resulting from the dogged pursuit of more”—is often dismissed as a silly buzzword created to express our cultural disdain for consumerism. Though often used in jest, the term may contain more truth than many of us would like to think.

Whether affluenza is real or imagined, money really does change everything, as the song goes—and those of high social class do tend to see themselves much differently than others. Wealth (and the pursuit of it) has been linked with immoral behavior—and not just in movies like The Wolf of Wall Street .

Psychologists who study the impact of wealth and inequality on human behavior have found that money can powerfully influence our thoughts and actions in ways that we’re often not aware of, no matter our economic circumstances. Although wealth is certainly subjective, most of the current research measures wealth on scales of income, job status, or socioeconomic circumstances, like educational attainment and intergenerational wealth.

Here are seven things you should know about the psychology of money and wealth.

More money, less empathy?

Several studies have shown that wealth may be at odds with empathy and compassion . Research published in the journal Psychological Science found that people of lower economic status were better at reading others’ facial expressions —an important marker of empathy—than wealthier people.

“A lot of what we see is a baseline orientation for the lower class to be more empathetic and the upper class to be less [so],” study co-author Michael Kraus told Time . “Lower-class environments are much different from upper-class environments. Lower-class individuals have to respond chronically to a number of vulnerabilities and social threats. You really need to depend on others so they will tell you if a social threat or opportunity is coming, and that makes you more perceptive of emotions.”

While a lack of resources fosters greater emotional intelligence, having more resources can cause bad behavior in its own right. UC Berkeley research found that even fake money could make people behave with less regard for others. Researchers observed that when two students played Monopoly, one having been given a great deal more Monopoly money than the other, the wealthier player expressed initial discomfort, but then went on to act aggressively, taking up more space and moving his pieces more loudly, and even taunting the player with less money.

Wealth can cloud moral judgment

It is no surprise in this post-2008 world to learn that wealth may cause a sense of moral entitlement. A UC Berkeley study found that in San Francisco—where the law requires that cars stop at crosswalks for pedestrians to pass—drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely than those in less expensive vehicles to stop and allow pedestrians the right of way. They were also more likely to cut off other drivers.

Another study suggested that merely thinking about money could lead to unethical behavior. Researchers from Harvard and the University of Utah found that study participants were more likely to lie or behave immorally after being exposed to money-related words.

“Even if we are well-intentioned, even if we think we know right from wrong, there may be factors influencing our decisions and behaviors that we’re not aware of,” University of Utah associate management professor Kristin Smith-Crowe, one of the study’s co-authors, told MarketWatch .

Wealth has been linked with addiction

While money itself doesn’t cause addiction or substance abuse, wealth has been linked with a higher susceptibility to addiction problems. A number of studies have found that affluent children are more vulnerable to substance-abuse issues , potentially because of high pressure to achieve and isolation from parents. Studies also found that kids who come from wealthy parents aren’t necessarily exempt from adjustment problems—in fact, research found that on several measures of maladjustment, high school students of high socioeconomic status received higher scores than inner-city students. Researchers found that these children may be more likely to internalize problems, which has been linked with substance abuse.

But it’s not just adolescents: Even in adulthood, the rich outdrink the poor by more than 27 percent.

Money itself can become addictive

The pursuit of wealth itself can also become a compulsive behavior. As psychologist Dr. Tian Dayton explained, a compulsive need to acquire money is often considered part of a class of behaviors known as process addictions, or “behavioral addictions,” which are distinct from substance abuse.

These days, the idea of process addictions is widely accepted. Process addictions are addictions that involve a compulsive and/or an out-of-control relationship with certain behaviors such as gambling, sex, eating, and, yes, even money.…There is a change in brain chemistry with a process addiction that’s similar to the mood-altering effects of alcohol or drugs. With process addictions, engaging in a certain activity—say viewing pornography, compulsive eating, or an obsessive relationship with money—can kickstart the release of brain/body chemicals, like dopamine, that actually produce a “high” that’s similar to the chemical high of a drug. The person who is addicted to some form of behavior has learned, albeit unconsciously, to manipulate his own brain chemistry.

While a process addiction is not a chemical addiction, it does involve compulsive behavior —in this case, an addiction to the good feeling that comes from receiving money or possessions—which can ultimately lead to negative consequences and harm the individual’s well-being. Addiction to spending money—sometimes known as shopaholism—is another, more common type of money-associated process addiction.

Wealthy children may be more troubled

Children growing up in wealthy families may seem to have it all, but having it all may come at a high cost. Wealthier children tend to be more distressed than lower-income kids, and are at high risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, cheating, and stealing. Research has also found high instances of binge-drinking and marijuana use among the children of high-income, two-parent, white families.

“In upwardly mobile communities, children are often pressed to excel at multiple academic and extracurricular pursuits to maximize their long-term academic prospects—a phenomenon that may well engender high stress,” writes psychologist Suniya Luthar in “The Culture Of Affluence.” “At an emotional level, similarly, isolation may often derive from the erosion of family time together because of the demands of affluent parents’ career obligations and the children’s many after-school activities.”

We tend to perceive the wealthy as “evil”

On the other side of the spectrum, lower-income individuals are likely to judge and stereotype those who are wealthier than themselves, often judging the wealthy as being “cold.” (Of course, it is also true that the poor struggle with their own set of societal stereotypes.)

Rich people tend to be a source of envy and distrust, so much so that we may even take pleasure in their struggles, according to Scientific American . According to a University of Pennsylvania study entitled “ Is Profit Evil? Associations of Profit with Social Harm ,” most people tend to link perceived profits with perceived social harm. When participants were asked to assess various companies and industries (some real, some hypothetical), both liberals and conservatives ranked institutions perceived to have higher profits with greater evil and wrongdoing across the board, independent of the company or industry’s actions in reality.

Money can’t buy happiness (or love)

We tend to seek money and power in our pursuit of success (and who doesn’t want to be successful, after all?), but it may be getting in the way of the things that really matter: happiness and love.

There is no direct correlation between income and happiness. After a certain level of income that can take care of basic needs and relieve strain ( some say $50,000 a year , some say $75,000 ), wealth makes hardly any difference to overall well-being and happiness and, if anything, only harms well-being: Extremely affluent people actually suffer from higher rates of depression . Some data has suggested money itself doesn’t lead to dissatisfaction—instead, it’s the ceaseless striving for wealth and material possessions that may lead to unhappiness. Materialistic values have even been linked with lower relationship satisfaction .

But here’s something to be happy about: More Americans are beginning to look beyond money and status when it comes to defining success in life. According to a 2013 LifeTwist study , only around one-quarter of Americans still believe that wealth determines success.

This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post .

About the Author

Carolyn Gregoire

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Health Is Wealth: What It Means and Why It’s True

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If you had to name a valuable asset, what’s the first thing that would come to mind?

For most people, it would be something tangible – like gold bars, Apple stock, paintings by European masters, or real estate in Central Park West.

But what about education, experience, loyalty, or happiness?

While these types of intangible assets won’t appear on a company balance sheet, there’s no denying their value. You can’t sell them. But when it comes to landing well-paid jobs, receiving promotions, and being willing and able to work hard, they’re priceless.

That’s where the adage “health is wealth” enters the picture. A paraphrase of the Roman poet Virgil’s famous comment that “the greatest wealth is health,” the idea is that our physical and mental well-being are arguably the most valuable assets of all.

Keep reading to learn more about this notion and why pursuing health above wealth makes so much (financial) sense.

What Does “Health Is Wealth” Mean?

At its core, “health is wealth” means that your physical and mental well-being is far more important than wealth in the realm of life satisfaction.

It’s saying, “Yes, money is great. It can solve many problems and lead to a fantastic quality of life. But in the absence of good health, it means very little.”

In other words, don’t pursue wealth to the detriment of well-being! After all, you can’t enjoy the financial fruits of your labor if you’re in constant pain, unable to move, struggling to breathe, going to the hospital every few months, or worrying about your health…or dead. Only if you’re well can you take full advantage of your wealth . What’s more, staying healthy is also crucial to reaching your full financial potential. 

The Financial Importance of Physical and Mental Health

“Health is wealth” reminds us that these two vital components of a happy life are interconnected. Indeed, numerous studies have shown that higher socioeconomic status usually leads to improved health prospects. But the opposite is also true. If your health suffers, then so do your finances. Here’s how:

Being Sick Is Expensive

It doesn’t matter whether you’re suffering from a broken leg or a bad bout of depression. Being sick has costs attached.

For example, you might not be able to work, and you only have so many paid sick days to take (unless you’re self-employed , in which case you might not have any). You may even have to quit your job . Either way, your income suffers, which can lead to a host of additional money problems. You might be unable to save, for instance, and/or forced to take on high-interest debt to cover your outgoings.

Mental illness has close links with financial difficulties, as well. You may have no energy or feel too anxious to work. Or perhaps you enter a manic episode and start making unwise purchases. Whatever the case, debt can follow. Indeed, National Debtline reports that 50% of adults with debt also have mental health problems.

Oh, and what if you die from a preventable illness? All those years of stress and hard work to ascend the corporate ladder, earn a high salary and squirrel away a sizable retirement nest egg could be for nothing.

Being Healthy Is Lucrative

Put yourself in an employer’s shoes. At a job interview, one candidate is smiling, full of energy, and has a CV full of relevant experience. A second candidate seems pale, lethargic, and weary. And the third didn’t come because they had the flu.

You’d hire #1, right? It’d be the same if you were choosing someone to get a raise or promotion. And that’s just one example of how being fit and healthy can benefit someone financially. You need energy to work hard, be proactive, contribute to a team, and show up how you need to – qualities often rewarded with higher pay.

And let’s not forget that being healthy almost always means you live longer. As a result, you can (among other things):

• Earn a salary for longer before retiring
• Reap the benefits of employment for longer
• Have more opportunities to climb the career ladder
• Have longer for the value of your investments to compound

Medical Care Isn’t Cheap

Having health problems often means you’ll need medical intervention. And we all know how expensive that can be! Thankfully, paying for good insurance minimizes the damage. Yet it won’t cover everything 100% of the time.

Indeed, there are countless examples of people forced to pay out of pocket for essential medical care – despite having insurance. And according to the Guardian , 530,000 bankruptcies get filed each year due to debt accrued from a medical illness. Furthermore, the cost of health insurance hinges on your health. Sick people pay higher premiums; healthy people pay less.

Health Equals Happiness Equals Wealth

The phrase “money can’t buy happiness” isn’t true. The widely-cited 2010 Princeton study demonstrated this when they found a) low incomes worsen emotional pain and b) emotional well-being increases as your annual income rises to $75,000 (at which point happiness stops going up as you earn more).

So if you want to be happy, pursuing wealth makes sense to a certain extent. Unfortunately, it’s hard to be happy when you’re unwell! Thus, chasing wealth at the expense of well-being can backfire – especially when you realize happiness also tends to make people richer.

It’s true. From taking fewer sick days to being more productive at work, happy individuals tend to earn more than their unhappy peers. The result? It pays (literally) to make health a priority.

Pursue Health and Wealth to Be Truly Happy

“Health is wealth” is a proverb and truism that most of us could benefit from being reminded of every now and again.

After all, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of pursuing money at all costs – forgetting that, without our physical and mental health, life really isn’t that pleasant! Furthermore, by prioritizing our health, we stand to accrue even more money in the long run (and to actually be able to enjoy it without pain, discomfort, or a lack of energy getting in the way).

Danny Newman is a nationally syndicated freelance writer with a focus on travel. MSN feed and Associated Press bylines. Danny is a digital nomad from the UK who’s been traveling full-time since 2018.  Learn More About Danny .

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Does More Money Really Make Us More Happy?

• Elizabeth Dunn
• Chris Courtney

A big paycheck won’t necessarily bring you joy

Although some studies show that wealthier people tend to be happier, prioritizing money over time can actually have the opposite effect.

• But even having just a little bit of extra cash in your savings account ($500), can increase your life satisfaction. So how can you keep more cash on hand?
• Ask yourself: What do I buy that isn’t essential for my survival? Is the expense genuinely contributing to my happiness? If the answer to the second question is no, try taking a break from those expenses.
• Other research shows there are specific ways to spend your money to promote happiness, such as spending on experiences, buying time, and investing in others.
• Spending choices that promote happiness are also dependent on individual personalities, and future research may provide more individualized advice to help you get the most happiness from your money.

How often have you willingly sacrificed your free time to make more money? You’re not alone. But new research suggests that prioritizing money over time may actually undermine our happiness.

• ED Elizabeth Dunn is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and Chief Science Officer of Happy Money, a financial technology company with a mission to help borrowers become savers. She is also co-author of “ Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending ” with Dr. Michael Norton. Her TED2019 talk on money and happiness was selected as one of the top 10 talks of the year by TED.
• CC Chris Courtney is the VP of Science at Happy Money. He utilizes his background in cognitive neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and machine learning to drive personalization and engagement in products designed to empower people to take control of their financial lives. His team is focused on creating innovative ways to provide more inclusionary financial services, while building tools to promote financial and psychological well-being and success.

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Health vs. wealth

The Economist reports this week on new research on the relationship between Health and Wealth . The long and the short of it is that improvements in health don't necessarily lead to higher incomes, as counterintuitive as that sounds at first. (As always, the causation may be running the opposite direction - higher incomes lead to better health.) In one of the papers, researchers from MIT looked at the impact of medical advancements like penicillin that improved health in developing countries but clearly were not the result of improved incomes in developing countries. They found that income per head dropped despite improvements in life expectancy.

According to the Economist, the researchers offered this explanation:

The reason was that increased life expectancy led to a higher population using a limited stock of things like land and capital, thus depressing income per person. Over time, reduced fertility, more investment and the entrepreneurial benefits of having more people could reverse some of this, but the data suggested that reductions in fertility in particular took a long time.

There seems to be another possibility that has been left unexamined, however. Let's assume for a moment that there is a very uneven distribution of innate ability (e.g. physical strength) in a population. If these medical innovations were of disproportionate benefit to those at the lower end of the distribution, then the overall productivity of a country might very well drop even as life expectancy increased.

Of course, data crunching would not capture this phenomenon - at least not for the 1950s - since we don't have numbers on innate ability. But is seems to me at least as plausible as the explanation offered by the researchers (or, at least the one summarized by the Economist - I haven't had a chance yet to look at the papers).

I should be clear that I'm not suggesting that improving health is a bad thing. Health is an important end in and of itself. As the Economist points out, "[i]t may be best to make a case for improving health because it is a good thing in itself, rather than on the basis of presumed economic benefits that may not appear for generations."

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• Health is Wealth Essay

Importance of Working Towards Good Health

Health is God’s gift to us. Health refers to the physical and mental state of a human being. To stay healthy is not an option but a necessity to live a happy life. The basic laws of good health are related to the food we eat, the amount of physical exercise we do, our cleanliness, rest, and relaxation. A healthy person is normally more confident, self-assured, sociable, and energetic. A healthy person views things calmly, and without prejudice.

Introduction

“The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered "Man! Because he sacrifices his health to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” This signifies that individuals don’t prioritise their mental health to earn money. Some even work 24 hours a day or seven days a week. 

However, you have the option to remain balanced. So, balance work and fitness daily. Always strive to keep a cheerful as well as a concentrated routine. It is necessary to plan ahead of time. In any case, one must maintain a good mental, bodily, and emotional state, and no professional or counsellor can assist you unless you desire to live. The will to live in the moment and make the most of it awakens the ideal strength within you, and you are the only one who can never let yourself fall apart. 

Importance of Maintaining Health

We live in a super-fast age. The Internet has shrunk the world dramatically and people are connected 24x7. Multitasking is the order of the day, as we struggle to fulfill our responsibilities for everyone in life. In this fight, we often forget to spare time for ourselves. The stress levels continue to build up until one day a major collapse may make us realize that in all this hectic activity, we have forgotten to take care of one important thing – our health.  

As we spend days shuttling between hospital and home, putting our body through one test after another, trying to find out what has gone wrong, we are forced to remember that ‘Health is indeed Wealth’.  

In earlier days, life was very simple. People worked for a stipulated time, often walked everywhere, ate more homemade food, did household chores, and enjoyed a healthy balance in life.  

Now people have cars and bikes to commute, so they walk less. With the demand for more working hours, people are awake till late at night and indulge in more junk food than home-cooked food. Modern equipment at home has reduced the labour work and increased dependency on this equipment.  People don’t have enough time to exercise or even get enough sunlight. Nowadays people are living very unhealthy lifestyles.  

Unhealthy living conditions have increased the contraction of people to various diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, hypertension, etc. This has alarming implications in the near future. So it is very important to focus on our health as much as we focus on our work. Moderation in food habits, daily exercise, and balanced work-life can surely make a big difference to our health and body. When a person stays mentally and physically fit, his actions and decisions are more practical and logical and hence he is more successful in life. Furthermore, good health has a direct impact on our personality.

It's crucial to consider how much self-control you have to keep a healthy lifestyle. Research reveals that changing one's behaviour and daily patterns are quite tough. According to the data, whether a person has a habit of smoking, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, or any other substance, it is extremely difficult to quit. A study found that 80% of smokers who tried to quit failed, with only 46% succeeding.

Importance of Good Health 

A healthy body has all the major components that help in the proper functioning of the body. The essential component is the state of physical health. Your life term extends when you maintain good physical fitness. If you are committed to exercising with a sensible diet, then you can develop a sense of well-being and can even prevent yourself from chronic illness, disability, and premature death.  

Some of the benefits of increased physical activity are as follows. 

It Improves Our Health

It increases the efficiency of the heart and lungs.

A good walk can reduce cholesterol levels.

Good exercise increases muscle strength.

It reduces blood pressure.

It reduces the risk of major illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.

Improved Sense of Well-being

It helps in developing more energy.

It reduces stress levels.

Quality of sleep improves.

It helps in developing the ability to cope with stress.

It increases mental sharpness. 

Improved Appearances 

Weight loss contributes to a good physique.

Toned muscles generate more energy.

Improved posture enhances our appearance. 

Enhanced Social Life

It improves self-image

It increases opportunities to make new friends.

It increases opportunities to share an activity with friends or family members. 

Increased Stamina

Increased productivity.

Increased physical capabilities.

Less frequent injuries.

Improved immunity to minor illnesses.

Along with physical fitness, a good mental state is also essential for good health. Mental health means the emotional and psychological state of an individual. The best way to maintain good mental health is by staying positive and meditating. 

However, unlike a machine, the body needs rest at regular intervals. A minimum of six to seven hours of sleep is necessary for the body to function optimally. Drinking plenty of water and a balanced diet is also very important for your body.  If you violate the basic laws of good health, like working late hours, ignoring physical exercise, eating junk food, it will lead to various ailments like hypertension, heart attacks, and other deadly diseases. 

What is National Health Day?

Every year on April 7th, World Health Day is celebrated. The World Health Organization (WHO) hosted the inaugural World Health Day on April 7, 1950, to draw the entire world’s attention to global health. 

Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) comes up with a new theme for public awareness, such as "Support Nurses and Midwives" in 2020. This supports the situation of COVID-19, where healthcare workers are saving lives day and night without worrying about their health.

The WHO also operates a global health promotion initiative to align equality so that individuals can take control of their lives, "every life matters," and consider their fitness. The government promotes numerous health policies, including food security, workplace quality, and health literacy, in schools, colleges, workplaces, and various community activities. 

Good Health for Children 

Children need to maintain good physical and mental health. With an increase in the pressure of studies and over-indulgence in modern gadgets, children are losing the most precious thing, which is health. These days, they barely play in the playgrounds, they are more inclined towards junk food and spend more time on the screen. These unhealthy activities are slowly sabotaging their health. Parents should concentrate on the physical and mental health of their children, and inculcate good habits for maintaining a healthy lifestyle from a tender age.   

Cleanliness also has a major role to play in maintaining good health. Taking a bath every day, washing hands before eating meals, brushing twice a day, changing clothes regularly, etc. are important habits to maintain good health.  

Society is witnessing gloomy faces as a result of children and their parents' excessive usage of a computer, mobile phone, and the Internet. They are constantly using these technological items, oblivious to the fact that they may harm their health. Teenagers are frequently discovered engrossed in their electronic devices, resulting in mishaps. 

The usage of electronic devices frequently results in anxiety and hostility. Excessive usage of these products has been linked to cancer, vision loss, weight gain, and insomnia. 

Emotional development is another crucial component that should not be disregarded because it determines whether or not a person is healthy. An emotionally healthy person should have a solid sense of logic, realisation, and a realistic outlook. 

Health is Wealth because if we are not healthy then all our wealth, fame and power can bring no enjoyment. Keeping fit and healthy is indeed not an option but a necessity.

FAQs on Health is Wealth Essay

1. Why is Health Considered as Wealth?

Health is wealth because it is one of God’s most precious gift to human beings. Good health refers to a balanced and healthy physical and mental state of an individual. If any individual is not healthy, wealth, fame, and power can bring no enjoyment. So health has more value than materialistic things.

2. When is World Health Day Celebrated?

World Health Day is celebrated on 7th April to raise awareness about health and fitness.

3. How Can You Maintain Good Health?

You can maintain good health by following a balanced and healthy diet. Have a good lifestyle by balancing work and life. You should have a moderate physical fitness regime every day. Go for brisk walks regularly or do other forms of exercise. Also, meditate and be positive to take care of your mental health.

4. Who came up with the phrase "health is wealth"?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a well-known counsellor and mentor, invented the word.

5. What are the consequences of a man choosing to live an unhealthy lifestyle?

If a man begins to live a lifestyle without a plan or unhealthy manner, he will confront numerous difficulties. He'd be depressed on the inside, untidy and filthy on the outside, and emotionally unstable all the time. A person who lives an unhealthy lifestyle will wake up late at night and early in the morning. Not only would this affect their mental condition, but it would also poison their surroundings. 

There would be a lot of wrath and sadness, and they would have fits from time to time.

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Health is wealth

• By Emmanuel M. Makasa
• Part of the series "Big Ideas"
• 24 July 2018

The findings, interpretations and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Investment Bank

>> You can download the essay here

Surgery involves more than a single discipline and more than the sheer cutting and stitching up of human flesh and bone. It is an essential part of basic care, but it remains inaccessible and unaffordable for many people around the world.

One third of today’s global diseases require surgical intervention, but this type of service is not always accessible or safe. Past global and national public health policies in the developing world have usually been disease specific, focusing on treating the single problem (such as the tuberculosis, HIV or malaria programmes) and not on strengthening the healthcare system and providing access to surgical care.

Surgery is a pillar of the health system. Every human being may need basic to life-saving surgical care in his or her lifetime and only a strong healthcare system with improved surgical care capacity can support true universal health coverage and lead to sustainable national development.

Most healthcare systems are simply not fully developed to reach everyone. And in low- and middle-income countries, the situation is even worse, as surgical care in most cases is primarily only available in urban areas.

A global public health challenge

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery reported in 2015 that 28-32 percent of the global burden of disease requires surgical intervention and that many people worldwide (about five billion, or 70 percent of the global population) lack access to safe and affordable surgery. The majority of these people live in rural parts of the developing world.

... many people worldwide (about five billion, or 70 percent of the global population) lack access to safe and affordable surgery

In the Republic of Zambia where I have lived, trained and served for more than 10 years as an orthopaedics and trauma surgeon, the practice of safe surgery is almost non-existent in most rural districts, where more than 60% of Zambia’s population lives. The Zambian situation and my personal experience is not unique but a common occurrence in almost all low- and middle-income countries. Even in urban areas, access to surgical care remains limited and this leads to long waiting lists for surgical operations and prolonged periods of waiting time before someone can receive the disability preventing surgical intervention that they need.

This status quo also fans the rising trend of “medical tourism,” in which the privileged few go abroad for surgery and other health services instead of investing in improved surgical care capacity in their countries - a situation that is not sustainable and undermines the development of the health system in Zambia and many other countries. It is no wonder that my country, Zambia, continues to report a high maternal and neonatal mortality rate (591 per 100,000 live births and 34 per 1,000 live births, respectively) despite huge investments into improving maternal and child health during the 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals.

Many mothers with difficult childbirth still have to travel long distances using inappropriate transport on bad roads to seek assistance and this situation often causes the death of the mother and child.

On many occasions, when I joined my orthopaedics and plastic surgery colleagues on rural outreach for the FLYSPEC programme in Zambia, we were called in for an emergency Caesarean section or to control difficult bleeding after childbirth. We were the only skilled personnel at the rural health facilities, and we stayed for only three days at a time.

Surgical access is even more desperate when considering specialised surgical services. Many rural children born with deformed limbs cannot attend school because of the long distances, so they suffer all of their lives, when such problems could have been fixed at an early age. Prolonged bone infection is another common disease easily treated with surgery. Victims of this illness develop chronic wounds and are often treated inappropriately by health personnel who are not trained in surgery. For a skilled surgeon instead, proper surgery takes only three hours and this illness is permanently resolved.

Surgical care: not a one-man show

The delivery of surgical care is never a one-man show. It is a partnership - a team effort by different health care providers with specialized skills. However, limited surgical care training facilities, limited operating rooms and costly surgical equipment make things even more difficult in some countries.

The estimated annual loss of total gross domestic product because of surgical expenses by 2030 will be $12.3 trillion.

Addressing these challenges requires concerted efforts and leadership both at the high level and at local level. I have been involved in both levels – developing global and national surgical health policies and programmes while providing training for local workers. The partnership presented by the surgical care team offers an entry point for addressing other public health challenges, such as increasing awareness of anti-microbial resistance, sexual reproductive health and rights and the role of the health sector in addressing violence against women and girls.

The surgical care team presents an innovative avenue for augmenting the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, a multi-stakeholder partnership sharing knowledge, technology and financial resources to support the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in developing countries.

There is also an economic argument to investing in surgical care in the developing world. In a 2015 report, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery estimated that 33 million people worldwide face catastrophic expenses paying for surgery and anaesthesia annually and that the estimated annual loss of total gross domestic product because of surgical expenses by the year 2030 will be $12.3 trillion. This equates to a reduction of annual GDP growth of approximately 2% in many low- and middle-income countries.

The Lancet said that investing in surgery is affordable, saves lives and promotes economic growth. It is estimated that greater access to surgical care in developing countries could avert 1.5 million deaths a year. Five million people died of injuries in 2012, and 270,000 women died of pregnancy complications. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. Realizing the importance and great need for improved surgical care within the primary health care system, the 194 Member States of the World Health Organisation under the leadership of the Republic of Zambia expressed their political commitment for improved surgical care.

From weakness to hope

To translate political commitments into tangible public health programmes that help all, World Health Organization has started developing National Surgical Obstetric and Anaesthesia Plans. Four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have completed the development of their National Surgical Obstetrics and Anaesthesia Plan (Zambia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal) and many more (including Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar) are on the road to achieving this. These plans should, besides addressing the huge burden of neglected surgical disease, also help these countries address other public health challenges and commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Improved surgical care would strengthen the health system at the primary level and is one of the practical means of ensuring universal health coverage in a nation, but safe surgical care cannot be provided without complementary improvements in laboratory and imaging services, blood transfusions and referral services. Improving surgical care capacity will also need improvements in health financing, increased availability of essential medicines, a better health information management system that includes surgery, and better health systems governance. After the Ebola disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014, “weak health systems” were identified as the key factor in the wide spreading and difficult control of the virus.

Many developing countries have invested in other maternal and child health interventions, but not in improving local surgical care. Because of this, they have struggled to bring maternal and infant mortality rates down.

Better management of disabilities through surgery would, for example, improve physical activity and the economic output of many people incapacitated by hernias or poorly aligned fractures. It would improve school attendance of affected children who have to cover long distances to get to class, giving the young a better start in life. Management of birth defects such as cleft-lip and cleft palate, which is treatable only by surgery, would guarantee better nutrition for children in the developing world. Reduced physical disability would contribute to reducing discrimination of those afflicted, including women who suffer prolonged childbirth. Surgery would restore eyesight to the elderly through the surgical removal of cataracts, giving them hope and independence. Improved surgical care would offer social and economic empowerment to individuals, families and communities.

Bleeding is the known leading cause of death for mothers and children during difficult births. It is also the leading cause of death in industrial and road traffic accidents and in injuries from war or natural disasters. Surgery remains the only means and the primary intervention to save lives in situations of life-threatening bleeding. However, many developing countries have invested heavily in other maternal and child health interventions, but not in improving local surgical care. Because of this, they have struggled to bring maternal mortality and infant mortality rates down.

The Republic of Zambia, through the Ministry of Health, identified this gap and public health challenge that was causing many deaths and resolved to improve local surgical care capacity as a key intervention back in 2010. It was for this reason that the ministry then established the directorate of Mobile and Emergency Health Services and I was given the responsibility to set up the emergency health response for Zambia as deputy director. This senior health management role and my experience as a surgeon proved useful when I had to lead negotiations that led to the adoption of a World Health Organisation resolution calling for strengthened surgical care.

Surgical Care as Development

Countries in the developing world are grappling with the challenge of teaching the right kinds of skills that are locally needed to their youthful populations. The United Nations High-Level Commission on Health, Employment and Economic Growth, set up in 2016, presented these three messages on how countries can foster better health care and economic growth:

• Transforming the public health workforce, including the reform of skills, could accelerate inclusive economic growth and make progress towards health equity.
• Achieving universal health coverage by increasing employment equitably for health and non-health workers is crucial for inclusive economic growth and sustainable development.
• Reforming aid and accountability for health systems. With a focus on skilled health workers, a new era of international cooperation and action for economic and human security can start.

...investing in improved surgical care capacity presents countries with the opportunity to create good-paying, long-term and respectable jobs that empower women and youth, who make up the larger part of the surgical team. Furthermore, job creation in surgical care presents countries with a means of increasing the tax base and raising revenues.

Thus, investing in improved surgical care capacity presents countries with the opportunity to create good-paying, long-term and respectable jobs that empower women and youth, who make up the larger part of the surgical team. Furthermore, job creation in surgical care presents countries with a means of increasing the tax base and raising revenues. Improving access to surgical care puts countries on a firm path to achieving most of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets.

Surgery makes people healthy and it is said that “health is wealth,” because only healthy people can sustain improved productivity, which in turn improves economic performance and leads to sustainable development of a nation.

European and North American organisations have acknowledged the importance of improving local surgical care capacity in the developing world and in their own underserved communities. The European Union, for instance, has provided grant funding for the COST-Africa research that gave the scientific evidence to prove that there was no loss in safety, quality and skills in the “Task Sharing” of surgical care services to non-physician health workers. This grant has now been increased and transformed into the “SURG-Africa” programme, which aims to increase surgical skills training in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania to improve surgical services.

Another initiative, “The Challenge Prize” at NESTA, has recently set up the “Surgical Equity Prize” as part of a broader campaign to raise awareness, leverage knowledge and expertise, and harness technical and financial resources to improve surgical services worldwide with the justification that a lack of action in improving surgery and anaesthesia could imperil our collective effort to realise several Sustainable Development Goals.

Zambia is setting up the first World Health Organisation Regional Collaboration Centre on surgical care information for the Southern African Development Community.

A role for digital health

Current challenges to equitable surgical care include the lack of global coordination and a lack of financial and human resources within health organizations. Countries should work with the World Health Organization and other partners in establishing robust and standardized platforms for the collection and sharing of surgical care data to demonstrate how much this would encourage investments in local surgical care capacity. Zambia is setting up the first World Health Organisation Regional Collaboration Centre on surgical care information for the Southern African Development Community.

But innovative financing for improved surgical care capacity should also be pursued domestically and internationally. To encourage financial and technical support, countries should develop integrated National Surgical Obstetric and Anaesthesia Plans that have a government budget and do not need external financing. In Zambia, the approval by Parliament in 2018 of the National Social Health Insurance Bill could prove to be a monumental milestone for raising much-needed finances for health. This extra money could further support the strengthening of emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as a component of universal health coverage for all Zambian. Funding agencies and development partners, among them the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Challenge Prize at NESTA, have explored and included in their plans projects that support the improvement of surgical care capacity for better health outcomes and sustainable national development.

The former director general of the World Health Organisation, Halfdan Mahler, said in 1980 that, “Social injustice is socially unjust in any field of endeavour, and the world will not tolerate it much longer. So the distribution of surgical resources in countries and throughout the world must come under scrutiny in the same way as any other intellectual, scientific, technical, social or economic commodity. The era of only the best for the few and nothing for the many is drawing to a close”.

These words seem more true today than ever before and deserve the support of each and every one of us.

Good health is a precondition for economic prosperity. Empowering weak health systems and giving access to surgical care in the developing countries will rise life expectancies and reduce discrimination caused by untreated disabilities, with implications for socioeconomic systems.

The EU bank supports projects which aim to ensure universal access to effective, safe and affordable healthcare services .

The findings, interpretations and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Investment Bank.

Download  the essay

© European Investment Bank 2018 Photos: © Shutterstock. All rights reserved

About the author

Emmanuel M. Makasa

Professor Emmanuel Malabo Makasa is the immediate past Assistant Registrar-Licensure of the Health Professionals Council of Zambia. He was appointed Honorary Adjunct Professor for Global Surgery in the Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2017 – 2020).

He had served for five years (2012 – 2017) as the Republic of Zambia’s Global Health Diplomat at the United Nations in Geneva and Vienna during which time he led the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization to recognise and endorse Surgery and Anaesthesia as part of Public Health and Primary Health Care, as a component of Universal Health Coverage and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Additionally, Prof. Emmanuel M. Makasa was technical coordinator of Health Attachés’ from the African Unions’ Permanent Missions at the UN in Geneva (2014).

He is a distinguished Orthopaedics and Trauma surgeon turned Global Health Diplomat who previously served in the Zambian Ministry of Health Senior Management as Deputy Director responsible for Emergency Health Services. He had also previously served as Secretary General of the Zambia Medical Association and as Secretary General of the Surgical Society of Zambia.

He is an honorary Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East Central & Southern Africa. He serves on the Advisory Boards of the G4 Alliance and the Boards of Trustees of the Lusaka Orthopaedics Research & Education Trust.

He has served in the past as an honorary Lecturer at the University of Zambia, School of Medicine. Professor Makasa was the Hugh Greenwood Lecturer at British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (2017); the A J Orenstein Lecturer (2017) at the University of Witwatersrand. He is the past recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship from the USA Department of State, the Dr. Benjamin L. Van Duuren Travel Grant, the Ridge Bursary and the AO Foundation Educational Grant.

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