Social And Economic Policy Decisions Impact Income Equality

Social and economic policy decisions impact income equality, which has an effect on the health of Canadians. Those with lower incomes are directly affected while income inequality affects the health of all Canadians through weakening of social structure (Raphael, 2002). Contrary to reports of rising net worth, a new report has been released by an Ottawa-based think tank to show Canada’s inequality problem. The top 10 percent of Canadians have seen their net worth grow by 42% since 2005 to 2.1 million in 2012. However, the bottom 10 percent saw their net worth shrink by 150 percent (Flavelle, 2014). With this new report, it challenges the idea that suggests Canadians are getting wealthier laterally (Flavelle, 2014). This paper will examine†¦show more content†¦For example, the reduction of deaths from infectious diseases such as influenza, diphtheria and typhoid were due to improvements in general living conditions rather than medical cures (Raphael, 2002) It is hypot hesized that lifestyle differences are the reasons for the incidence of stroke, heart disease and cancer. Health and Poverty Vulnerable populations including immigrants, Aboriginal peoples, single parent families and the elderly make up a growing percentage of the lower extreme of the socioeconomic scale (Turnbull, J. Podymow T, 2002). While we are quick to consider the costs of aiding the poor, we rarely consider the costs that poverty and income inequality inflict on our society. To achieve improved health, it is critical to improve income security through good jobs, income supports and fairer taxes (Barnes et al., 2013). There are two broad strategies that focus on alleviating the effects of poverty on health: 1) directly reducing poverty and socio-economic inequality 2) intervening in pathways connecting poverty and health. These interventions have been identified as upstream and downstream. Downstream policies refer to those that have an explicit health purpose and tend to be targeted at those that are already suffering from increased health risk, while upstream refers to the wider influences on health inequalities such as income distribution, education and housing. While these approaches fall