Figures have confirmed that the gap between the rich and the poor affects "life expectancy." Wherever in the country, the top 20% of income earners have higher life expectancy and health life expectancy than the bottom 20%. Such "life inequality" has been confirmed in all 252 cities and counties nationwide, and in particular, Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon-do, has an 11.4-year gap in life expectancy between income levels. In other words, rich people live 11 years longer than low-income people.
The Korean Society of Health Equality announced the "Status of Health Inequality by 17 metropolitan cities, provinces, and 252 cities, counties, and districts nationwide" at the debate titled "Health Inequality in the Local Autonomy Era, What to Do?" held at the National Assembly on the 26th. The association analyzed 295 million insurance premium data from the National Health Insurance Service and 1.54 million deaths from 2010 to 2015 to find out the life expectancy. In order to calculate health life expectancy, data linking the National Health Insurance Corporation data and 1.57 million community health survey data (2008-2014) were used. Life expectancy is the average number of years of survival that a baby born now is expected to live, and health life refers to the "period of maintaining a healthy life during life expectancy."
Low-income people in Cheorwon live 11 years less than high-income people."The gap between the rich and the poor = the gap in life."
The data clearly showed health inequality according to income. In particular, the gap between health life expectancy and income level was larger than life expectancy. This means that the income gap has a greater impact on the "quality of life." In metropolitan cities such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, life expectancy was also at the top, and the gap in life expectancy between income levels was relatively small. On the other hand, Jeollanam-do and Gangwon-do have low life expectancy and a wide gap in life expectancy between income levels. Among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces across the country, Seoul had the highest life expectancy of 83.3 years, and Gangnam-gu had the highest life expectancy of 84.8 years in Seoul. The lowest area was South Jeolla Province, which is 80.7.
The difference in life expectancy according to income level was large in Gangwon and Jeonnam among metropolitan cities. Both were 7.6 years apart. Ulsan was the smallest at 4.3 years. Among the cities and counties, Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon-do, Gogunheung, Jeollanam-do, was counted as 11.4 years, and Muju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, was counted as 10.4 years. In Seoul, Jung-gu District had the largest gap of 8.8 years. In some places, the life expectancy of low-income families was lower than that of North Korea. In 14 places, including Cheorwon-gun (67.6 years old), Hwacheon-gun (67.9 years old), and Sacheon-si (68.6 years old) in Gyeongsangnam-do, the life expectancy of the lower 20% of men in 2013 was lower than that of North Korean men (68.7 years old).
The association explained, "We prepared this data to help candidates for the heads of local governments know the current status of health inequality in the region and come up with policy alternatives in the June 13 local elections." Oh Chun-hee, policy director of the Korea Medical Welfare Social Cooperatives Association, said, "The income gap leads to an education gap, which in turn acts as a factor in determining an individual's social position," adding, "Health inequality comes as a threat to the 'right to health' as a basic human right."
Writer: Grace Jun
(Picture from Unsplash)
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