Increase access to available medicine
In 2016, Bruce Krasnow wrote an article for the Santa Fe New Mexican, “N.M. poverty rate improves, but still among the nation’s worst” (Sept. 16, 2016). Krasnow cited the U.S. Census Bureau, which specified that 20.4 percent of New Mexicans live below the poverty line. The updated percentage, according to the Census Bureau’s QuickFacts website, is 19.4 percent. The headline captures the imperative discussion of poverty in our state and elsewhere. But the article also points out a crucial part of that discussion: health care.
Although the article ended with the hopeful note that New Mexicans are obtaining health insurance at higher rates than other states, Krasnow noted the relationship between lowpaying jobs and a lack of health care benefits. I think it’s important to dive deeper into this relationship.
The discussion of poverty alleviation merits discussion of access to and relative quality of health care. I have recently read Mountain Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (and highly recommend it), which opened my eyes to the crucial marrying of the topics of poverty and health. Kidder tells the story of Paul Farmer. If you haven’t heard of Farmer, he is a unique person to read about. He studied medicine and anthropology and pairs them well in his work as a doctor in Haiti. A recurrent theme in Kidder’s tale of Farmer is the interlinking of people with poor health and poverty. He recounts the story of Farmer giving a young girl a spinal tap, during which she’s crying and says, “It hurts, I’m hungry.” To be thinking about hunger in the middle of a spinal tap demonstrates the girl’s dire state of need.
Farmer’s experiences validate that not only are the poor unable to afford health care, but that bad health itself is a result of poverty. In the case of New Mexico, this notion puts us in a trap: bad health is a symptom of poverty, yet lack of health insurance is common among those with low-paying jobs.
It takes a minute to think about the idea that bad health could be a symptom of poverty.
We have come a long way in medicine on average. Childhood deaths are significantly more rare. Antibiotics, vaccines and sanitation standards all contributed monumentally to lower mortality rates by infectious disease. But is it fair to assume that average improvements are distrusted evenly across different groups? Not likely.
In Farmer’s case, regions with high rates of poverty also are less likely to have diseases under control. I have a difficult time believing that this is unique to Haiti, and I’m sure evidence supports my intuition. This pattern points to the fact that the advances in medicine have not been equally shared. And when some among us are without access to basic medicine and care, it is within our duty to address the reason for that.
According to Krasnow’s 2016 article, around 11 percent of New Mexicans under 65 do not have health insurance. As a result, they are less likely to receive treatment for preventable and treatable illness. If this lack of insurance is paired with poverty, the state of poverty is worsened as a result.
Poverty is not as simple as a statistic and not as solvable as a lower one. Its root causes, signs, and symptoms are as complex as the infectious diseases so often associated with it. In our conversation about poverty alleviation in a state such as New Mexico — in which its grip cripples many — we cannot fail to include the ways we can increase access to available medicine that has improved so many lives.