"Inequities are killing people on a "grand scale" reports WHO's Commission" Progressive taxation is one big way to reduce these inequities.
"Progressive taxation
Strengthening domestic revenues for equitable public finance requires stronger progressive taxation. This implies strengthening tax systems and capacities, particularly building institutional capacity in low-income settings… Taxation should focus on direct – such as income or property taxes – over indirect forms – such as trade or sales taxes"
(p.123, Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health. World Health Organization, Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr29/en/index.html)
Income Inequality and Life Expectancy in the District
Why do District residents have the lowest life expectancy in the nation?
Because high income inequality translates into bad health!
Re: Income Inequality Growing, January 30, 2006 UNDERNEWS
Progressive Review, Sam Smith
The CBPP report cited also gives data for the District of Columbia, showing that DC has the highest income inequality in the nation, compared to any state. The ratio of the top fifth to the bottom fifth of family income for DC was in the early 2000s 12.4, with the next highest inequality being New York and Texas, with ratios of 8.1. The ratio of the very rich in DC, the top 5% to the lowest fifth was 21.9, with Arizona being the closest with 14.2. And the income gap has grown in DC from the early 1990s. The statistics for DC are cause for urgent concern, particularly because of the close connection between income
inequality in a community and bad health of its lower income
residents. (Note that these ratios are computed differently from
previous published studies, now income is of families, including the impact of taxes and tax credits, and public benefits not included in previous studies). A summary of the CBPP/EPI report for DC, plus recommendations to address it are found at:
http://www.dcfpi.org/1-26-06inc.pdf.
UNICEF Ranks U.S., Britain at Bottom in Child Welfare Survey
By David McHugh
Associated Press
Thursday, February 15, 2007; A17
Washington Post
BERLIN, Feb. 14 -- The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed subjects from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.
The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the United States was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday in Germany by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency.
One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in the United States and Britain -- despite high overall levels of national wealth -- because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families.
"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels of child poverty, which is also associated with
inequality, and in rather different ways poorly developed services to families with children," said Bradshaw, a professor of social policy at the University of York in Britain.
"They don't invest as much in children as continental European
countries do," he said, citing the lack of day-care services in both countries and poorer health coverage and preventive care for children in the U.S.
Separation Between Rich, Poor Widening in D.C., Study Finds
By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006;
http://money.aol.com/bw/general/canvas3/_a/say-aloha-to-long life/ 20060913114809990001
Say Aloha to Long Life, Business Week Online
By Catherine Arnst
Residents of Hawaii have the longest life expectancy of any state, and D.C. denizens the shortest, according to a new Harvard study
Life expectancy in the U.S. varies widely, based not on how much you earn or how good your health insurance is, but on where you live. A new study by Harvard University researchers found a gap of more than 35 years between the longest-lived group of Americans—Asian American women in Bergen County, N.J., with an average life expectancy of 91 years—and the shortest, Native Americans in a cluster of rural counties in South Dakota, at 66.6 years. The only other major industrialized nation with such a large "longevity gap" is Brazil.
District of Columbia
Worst Places to Live Longer
Life Expectancy: 72 years | State Ranking: 51
The following is based on the Murray et al. study:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=getdocument&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030260
(Go to the end of the article to find a downloadable Excel file with the data, including DC).
Here is what I came up with in calculating the life expectancies at birth for Black men and women in DC for 1999, which is apparently the latest data now available:
From the US Life Tables 1999 NVSS 50, #6, 3/21/02, CDC:
(All M F for each category)
All Races White Black
76.7 73.9 79.4 77.3 74.6 79.9 71.4 67.8 74.7
Assumed DC in 1999 was 60% Black and the remaining 40% having the average national life expectancy (see above) (60% from District of Columbia Population and Housing Trends, Issue Fall 2005, Fig. 3, DC State Data Center, by Joy Phillips, Robert Beasley and Art Rodgers)
From Murray et al., 2006, PloS Medicine:
DC in 1999: Life expectancies at birth: M: 67.6 F: 76.2
From a weighted average I derived:
Life expectancies at birth:
Black Men: 63.4 or 10.5 years lower than national average
Black Women: 74.1 or 5.3 years lower than national average
David Schwartzman
(Tax & Budget, Legislative Agenda Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party, dschwartman@gmail.com)
Published online at: The DC Statehood Green Party Legislative Agenda for 2007-8
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/testimony.php?annc_id=184§ion_id=1
