People with a lower income or education level are less resilient and often struggle to make ends meet. They also have less frequent employment. This can, for example through stress, lead to a worse perceived health and more visits to the general practitioner, the hospital, or mental health care. This group uses healthcare twice as much. This is evident from the doctoral research of Iris Meulman. She is defending her thesis today at Tilburg University. The research was conducted at the RIVM.
Differences in healthcare usage between income and education groups have been known for some time. With Meulmans doctoral research, these differences have been mapped further. For her research, healthcare data from all Dutch citizens, questionnaires, and existing studies were analyzed. People with a lower income or education level use more healthcare because they experience more health problems. This leads, for example, to a lower quality of life and a shorter life expectancy. Meulmans research shows, among other things, that people with a lower income had four times the chance of dying from COVID-19.
Security of Existence
Meulman shows that security of existence plays an important role in explaining health differences and differences in healthcare usage. According to her research, three things are particularly strongly associated with health differences: income security (36%), social network and resources (29%), and work(conditions) (22%). People with a lower income, for example, have less resilience and find it more difficult to manage financially. Those who have financial worries, do not have stable employment, or experience little support from others are more likely to face health problems. This ensures that people in a vulnerable position go to the general practitioner or hospital more often.
Equal Distribution of Health Gains
It appears that the Dutch attach great importance to an equal distribution of health gains from health policy, as shown by Meulmans questionnaire research. If public health improves, everyone should benefit equally, regardless of income levels. Think of a longer or healthier life. Participants were therefore not willing to incur extra costs or give up health gains to improve the health of people with a lower income.