Connections Between Healthy Bodies and Healthy Bank Accounts and Race

Connections Between Healthy Bodies and Healthy Bank Accounts and Race Given the United States of America’s (USA) wealth and medical advances, it is shocking for the country to rank 29th for life expectancy worldwide. Countries, such as Australia, Belgium, Japan, Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Iceland, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Canada, have a higher life expectancy than the USA. As such, despite spending about $2 trillion per year on health, the USA's life expectancy has not improved (California Newsreel, 2014). The paper focuses on the connections between healthy bodies, healthy bank accounts, and race or ethnicity. The USA has large disparities between the wealthy, middle, and low-income earners. In particular, only the rich people have the best health insurance, which is why individuals in this social class live longer. In 2007, the life expectancy of the USA was between 65.9 and 81.1 years for males and 73.5 and 86 years for females (Kulkarni, Levin-Rector, Ezzati, & Murray, 2011). The significant racial and geographic disparities make it challenging for middle and low-income earners to access high-quality healthcare services compared to their wealthy counterparts. Many people in the lower social classes do not visit hospitals for medical checkups. In most cases, they go healthcare institutions when diseases have progressed to advanced stages, which becomes hard to treat. As such, when it comes to this group of individuals, there is nothing like preventable causes of mortality since they do not have health insurance or resources for preventive care. Racial and income inequalities are significant factors that lead to the low life expectancy in the USA. Despite the country having the best hospitals compared with other developed countries, the charges on medical care are higher such that only a few individuals can afford it. In the long run, ordinary citizens are denied access to quality healthcare services since they cannot afford them (Bezruchka, 2012). In addition, the race or ethnicity where one is born determines his future life. Those from underserved or remote communities are unlikely to get life necessities, which affects the quality of th...