How Much Do You Make?

How Your Income Influences Your Health Status

There’s no question that income is related to both health status and access to health care services in the U.S. As a matter of fact, households with higher incomes have higher levels of discretionary income and, thus, have better health status and access to care.

Rationale Conversation Be Damned!
However, when it comes to having any type of rationale conversation concerning who makes how much in this country–and how all of this impacts health status and health care–the group IQ usually plummetts to below room temperature.

Try it for yourself.

Next time you have the chance, ask your closest friends what’s “middle class” and watch the fireworks fly.

It happens every single time.

The Facts
But, thanks to Kiplinger.com, the genie’s out of the bottle.

Here’s the story:

If you, as an individual, earned more than $410,000 you are in the top 1% of all income earners in the U.S.
If you earned $160,041, you are in top 5%.
If you earned more $113,018, you are in the top 10%.
If you earned more than $66,532, you are in the top 25% of wager earners in the U.S.
If you earned more than 32,878, you are in the top 50% of all earners.
And if you earned less than that, you are in the bottom 50% of all earners.

Taken another way, this stark reality means that 50% of all wage earners in the U.S. earn less than $33,000 a year.

And this, my friends, does not bode well for us as a country when it comes to health status and health care.

What This Means For America
In fact, according to the Institute for the Future, “Research has shown that when income disparity among the population widens, the overall health status of the population worsens.”

So brace yourself America–when it comes to health status and health care in this country–things are going to get (much) worse before they gets better.

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Published:: 01.01.10 / 5pm

Category:: Building a Healthy Workplace

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How Much Do You Make?

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