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Basic income just what the doctor ordered
Time to start prescribing healthy incomes
By Danielle Martin
Senior Fellow
Women’s College Hospital Institute
and Ryan Meili
Expert advisor
EvidenceNetwork.ca
SASKATOON, SK/ Troy Media/ - What makes people sick? Infectious agents like
bacteria and viruses and personal factors like smoking, eating poorly and living a
sedentary lifestyle are factors.
But none of these factors compare to the way that poverty makes us sick. Prescribing
medications and lifestyle changes for our patients who suffer from income deficiency
isn’t enough; we need to start prescribing healthy incomes.
Decades of studies have shown that healthcare accounts for less than 25 per cent of
health outcomes. The upstream factors that affect health such as income, education,
employment, housing, and food security have a far greater impact on whether we will
be ill or well. Of these, income has the most powerful influence, as it shapes access to
the other health determinants. Low-income Canadians are more likely to die earlier and
suffer from more illnesses than Canadians with higher incomes, regardless of age, sex,
race or place of residence.
No wonder doctors and policy-makers are beginning to line up behind the notion of a
basic income guarantee.
Basic income is an approach to poverty reduction that is much simpler and more
streamlined than existing programs. Every year, Canadians file taxes. With basic
income, if their incomes fall below a certain level, they get topped up to an amount
sufficient to meet basic needs. Basic income is a smart alternative to costly social
assistance programs, helping overcome the 'welfare wall' that traps too many people in
the cycle of poverty.
Earlier this month, 194 physicians in Ontario signed a letter calling for a basic income
pilot program. Delivered to Minister of Health, Eric Hoskins (also a physician), the letter
outlines how poverty leads to higher rates of heart disease, depression, diabetes and
scores of other illnesses.
In the same month, a new report has brought forth the most official look at basic income
in Canada in a generation. The Government of Saskatchewan Advisory Group on
Poverty Reduction, which included community members and high-level public servants,
reviewed the evidence and consulted key groups that work with people experiencing
poverty.
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Their recommendations included the ambitious goal of reducing poverty in
Saskatchewan by 50 per cent by the end of 2020. To reach such a goal requires putting
in place a policy with the power to do so, and the group came to the consensus that a
Basic Income pilot project would be an effective and achievable means of doing so.
Recommendations included the ambitious goal of reducing poverty in Saskatchewan by
50 per cent by the end of 2020. To reach such a goal requires putting in place a policy
with the power to do so, and the group came to the consensus that a basic income pilot
project would be an effective and achievable means of doing so.
A growing body of evidence shows that allowing poverty to continue is far more
expensive than investing to help improve people’s economic well-being. Currently $3.8
billion dollars – 5 per cent of GDP – is lost from the Saskatchewan economy each year
due to increased health and social costs and decreased economic opportunities. In
Ontario, this cost of poverty has been calculated to be upwards of $30 billion per year.
Where more extensive basic income pilots have been tried, both internationally and in
Canada, the results have been impressive. The Mincome experiment in Dauphin,
Manitoba in the 1970s resulted in higher school completion rates, and a reduction in
hospitalization of 8.5 per cent largely due to fewer accidents, injuries and mental health
admissions. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadians
spent $63.6 billion on hospital services in 2014, meaning a decrease of 8.5 per cent
would result in savings of $5.4 billion. This is just one of the many areas where the
return on social investment saves public funds, and improves the lives of Canadians in
the bargain.
Some policy changes happen slowly, with incremental movements in public opinion. But
every once in a while, an idea that had seemed outside the realm of possibility quite
suddenly gathers momentum. The concept of basic income is on course from the
margins to the mainstream. If political leaders have the health of Canadians as their first
priority, they’ll turn advice into action and implement basic income.
Danielle Martin is a family physician and Senior Fellow at the Women’s College Hospital
Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care. Ryan Meili is a family physician,
founder of Upstream: Institute for A Healthy Society and an expert advisor with the
Evidence Network.
© 2015 Distributed by Troy Media
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