Society can be ruled through many different systems, for example democracy and capitalism. Democracy is a representative government selected by any of the eligible population to vote without state influence and all votes equal whereas capitalism is defined as the economic system owned by private owners which controls the country’s trade and industry for their own profit and not the benefit of the state. Throughout the years many countries have switched the way their society is ran. The organisation of society can impact on different elements of society; one of the key elements being health. Health has been defined by WHO as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. The definition of health can vary from area to area which can affect the comparisons that could be made between democratic or capitalist societies. In this essay, I will be discussing the impact of capitalism on health, evaluating the arguments for and against the claim coming to a conclusive decision if it is good.
The first argument is capitalism reproduces inequality which ensures minorities are the majority of the working class therefore results in them having worse health outcomes. A capitalist society will impact this as society is spilt into two, those who own the means of production and those who have to sell their labour to those. The majority of those who have to sell their labour are minorities who make up the bottom of the social hierarchy. Not only do they have to sell their means of production to provide they also have the worst health. 7.2% at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale had heart, stroke and vascular disease whereas 4.2% at the top of the socio-economic scale had these diseases. NHS identified ‘High blood pressure (hypertension) is one of the most important risk factors for CVD. If your blood pressure is too high, it can damage your blood vessels.’ Statistics from The Conversation show that 25.5% of those with the lowest socioeconomic status had high blood pressure compared to 20.8% of those with the highest socioeconomic status. Not always does high blood pressure cause cardiovascular diseases but it does increase the risk of it. The risk factors for cardiovascular diseases stated on the NHS website correspond with the data on The Conversation which shows that those of the lowest socioeconomic status are affected more from these risk factors such as no exercise, daily smoker and obesity.
These are Karl Marx would argue society is set up this way to ensure that those at the lower end of
However, in capitalist societies they have better healthcare. In an article written by Navarro and Shi they compared how the political party in power influenced the health of individuals of that society.
One of the key examples of a political party which had capitalist influences and better healthcare was the Liberal Party, ‘the capitalist class particularly strong’. ‘52.8 percent in liberal countries’ of women had involvement in employment which could be argued to be beneficial for health as an increase income so more money could be spent on health and wellbeing of their family. ‘Being out of work has a negative impact on your health and wellbeing’ so therefore an increase in the number of women working meant that their health and wellbeing improved as those were out of work had ‘shorter life expectancy’ and ‘higher rates of physical and mental health problems’ while also taking ‘more medication and use more medical services’. So overall it had positive impacts on women as their health improved while their expenses on medical services also reduced. However, it is important to consider that this article is fairly outdated as the data used was from as old as 1945, so it could be argued to be outdated and that capitalism is actually more harmful than helpful now.
Another way capitalism is not benefiting society is the introduction of private healthcare. More and more hospitals are becoming private therefore reducing the help available for those who can’t afford private healthcare. While private healthcare increases, so does the demand for doctors. Despite the demand for doctors’ increasing, the supply of doctors is not increasing, ‘71 per cent of those working in hospitals had seen shifts left uncovered, because of staff shortages, while 47 per cent of GPs reported vacancies in their practice’; this is a statistic found by the guardian on the staffing crisis in the NHS. Staffing issues are only getting worse because ‘The NHS received less than half the funding it asked for in the Autumn budget’. The increase of private healthcare has led there to be a decline in funding for the NHS which then reduces the quality of care given by the NHS. Many doctors are opting to work in private healthcare because wages are higher and there isn’t also the same shortage of funding; this leaves the NHS with a shortage of doctors so therefore the care has reduced because the time and attention given by doctors to patients has declined. Many of those of a low socioeconomic status cannot afford private healthcare and rely heavily on the NHS so their healthcare will therefore be much more affected by the decline of care in the NHS.
Capitalism is also helping lower prices of medical goods that help health outcomes. Capitalism drives competition which has led to an increase in the number of drug companies. The effect of this has been the reduction of the prices of many drugs such as paracetamol as there is a variety of companies making this drug. ‘In the pharmaceutical industry, competition policy benefits consumers in the form of increased accessibility to medicines at affordable prices, both in the public sector and on the commercial market’; a decrease in prices of drugs is beneficial to individuals as they can afford the medicines for when they start experiencing initial symptoms for diseases. In contrast if they couldn’t be able to afford these medicines then the symptoms could develop into something much more serious, which could have a lot more negative effects on all aspects of their life, not just health., e.g. being admitted into hospital so not being able to work and therefore a lack of income.
Another way capitalism is affecting healthcare is that is impacting the healthcare of those living in developing nations. As stated by WHO ‘Management of waste is a demanding and challenging undertaking in all European countries, with important implications for human health’. Management of waste safely and properly therefore can be expensive and a difficult task which is why many western countries result to illegal dumping as they can save money and make profit by dumping them in developing nations which don’t have the proper legislation for the dumping while also being much cheaper to dump. ‘the cost of legitimately disposing off toxic waste in the USA is about $2,500 a ton but some Third World Countries will dispose of it for $3 a ton.’, hence why many corporations dumb in these countries. However, the impact of this is that there is an increase in the risk of ‘soil, water and air pollution’. ‘Leaks from the waste may contaminate soils and water streams, and produce air pollution through emissions of e.g. heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs)’; therefore, the population of these developing nations suffer because of the improper disposal of the waste. The way capitalism allows this to happen is due to the ‘continually increasing levels of power and influence of TNCs within the global economy of today’. Transnational corporations (TNC) are continuously on the grow and as these corporations grow so does there ‘role in domestic economies and the international economy’. This means they can use their position and influence to hide their illegal activities such as illegal waste disposal, therefore they avoid punishment for their actions and can continue to do this without facing the