Health tops seniors' concerns: survey

Bill Kays

- August 27, 2012 at 14:05:40

Of course seniors number one concern is health. As we get older we tend to value the time we have left more highly than earlier in our lives. Compounding the issue is this report put out by the Canadian Medical Association stating - CMA Poll Finds "Worrisome" Gap In Income-Related Health Status ... by Patrick Sullivan, August 13, 2012, The CMA says physicians are finding it "particularly worrisome" that a widening gap in health status appears to be separating Canadians in different income brackets. "When it comes to the well-being of Canadians, the old saying that wealth equals health continues to ring true," CMA President John Haggie commented as the CMA released poll results that were used to compile its 2012 National Report Card on Canada's health care system. The poll, conducted by Ipsos Reid, found that only 39% of respondents earning less than $30,000 a year described their health as excellent or very good, compared with 68% for those earning $60,000 or more. It also found that the recent economic downturn has had a significant impact. Nearly half of respondents who had household incomes of $30,000 or less (46%) reported they were spending less time, energy and money sustaining their health as the economy slowed, compared with 19% of those from households with incomes of $60,000 or more. "We as Canadians tend to think we have a fair society and an equitable public health care system when in reality there are vast numbers of Canadians who are forced to do without when it comes to health care," Haggie said. "That is why the physicians of Canada are pressing for the transformation of health and health care - so that patient needs truly can be put first." The findings, released as the CMA prepared for its Aug. 12-15 annual meeting in Yellowknife, are topical because one focus of the meeting will be the impact social determinants of health - issues such as income and housing - have on Canadians' health status. The CMA poll also found: 59% of those earning less than $30,000 had accessed some form of health care within the past month, compared with 43% of those earning more than $60,000 24% of those in the lower income category had either delayed or stopped buying prescription drugs, compared with just 3% of those earning $60,000 or more tobacco use within the two income categories showed a sharp divide, with 33% of those in the lower income group reporting daily tobacco use, compared with 10% in the higher income group In terms of grading the health care system, three-quarters of respondents (74%) gave it a mark of B or higher (39% A, 35% B), which represents a four-point improvement over the 2011 results. Respondents aged 55 or older were most likely to give the system an A grade (47%), while those aged 35 to 54 were least likely (32%). Forward any comments about this article to: cmanews@cma.ca. Since most seniors are on a shrinking fixed income this issue becomes even more important.

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whychickensoup

- August 26, 2012 at 09:33:39

what does chicken soup have to do with the survey? How many seniors were surveyed? what was the methodology?

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Walter Wilkins

- August 26, 2012 at 09:01:48

As a senior that didn't take the survey, I wonder why this article doesn't provide a hyper-link to the survey itself - after all, this is the 21st century. There's more than a few of us with enough smarts left to want access to the raw data so we can do our own interpretation. We're old, we're not children. It would also seem that the article may have missed the point - or, at least, it should have raised an interesting question. How does one interpret the result that health (43 per cent) gets trumped by a desire to become more engaged with computers (61 per cent)? One interpretation is that seniors want to use the tool to be more engaged with each other - and the world - perhaps to fend off the isolation and alienation that aging imposes on us all? With enhanced communication, as physical congregation becomes more of a problem, we seniors know we can at least seek out the remedy of virtual congregation. I hope that our government enables this to occur. Then again, would governments get off so easily? Could such obviously wrong decisions, like Plan B, slip by so easily? Don't forget, many seniors have the time to actively engage with the issues - imagine if we were empowered with the tools to become not only more active, but also more activist? Perhaps the article ought to have headlined: SENIORS WANT TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT, NOT THE PAST.

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