Today I am attending a symposium organised by the NZMA on health inequities to coincide with the visit of Sir Michael Marmot from the UK. I have blogged before about the influence of Sir Michael on the excellent NZMA statement on health equity.
Its occasions like this that highlight just how ridiculous are the assertions of Maori privilege made by Don Brash. Just a couple of examples have been highlighted by Tony Blakely from Otago University and Don Simmers and Norman Sharpe from the NZMA.
- despite improvements in the first decade of this century Maori life expectancy is 7-8 years short of non-Maori.
- mortaility rates for Maori in middle age are 2-3 tomes higher than non-Maori including all causes such as heart disease.
- Maori babies are 5 times more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome than non-Maori
- diabetes rates, suicide rates and infectious disease rates and mortality are all higher for Maori than non-Maori
Health inequities are certainly relate to economic depravation,and it was a good achievement that income inequality in New Zealand did reduce slightly in the 2000s under Labour, but there is much more to do. It is also clear that there is an ethnic component above and beyond that. Addressing this is not privileging a group, it is in fact correcting a systemic disadvantage. Doing so, with early intervention, will benefit us all in promoting social inclusion and reducing the cost of expensive health interventions at a later stage.
@ Grant
So, given that Don Brash is a political irrelevancy, what is the NZLP strategy likely to be to address the actual issue?
Tell Maori/Pacific people not to drink booze, smoke or eat and drink calorie rich/goodness free food? Isn’t everyone told everyone to do that already?
Yes, inequalities are related to economic deprivation. I’m glad you have implied it is corellated, not causal.
But they are more fundamentally related to the choices people make, common sense and a degree of consumer education.
No one is forced to eat KFC when they can boil up some spuds. No one has to buy tobacco over spinach. No one in compelled to buy beer over minced beef.
Good post, Grant, can I apply for the post of sub-editing your copy before you hit send, however ..
I’ve been reading The Spirit Level, by two British epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, first published in 2009 and then revised in 2010 for the second edition.
Using mostly UN and OECD research (multinational and longitudinal studies) they show that countries where there is greater social inequality create conditions where health outcomes, violence, unemployment and so on congregate around the least advantaged of the unequal society – but also, that these negative societal effects occur across all demographic sectors in unequal societies, so that mortality rates for indicator diseases are higher for well-off people within the most unequal societies, compared to similarly well-off people in more equal societies.
It really does benefit everyone in society if the disadvantages of the most deprived 10-15% are addressed, in terms of infant mortality, childhood development, educational access, ability of children form deprived backgrounds to obtain work after leaving school, levels of societal crime, and general issues around trust and security in our communities.
The USA and UK, where corporate market economy politics have held sway over the past 3 decades, show the greatest inequality ratios of all the OECD countries.
NZ is not far behind them, along with Australia and Canada, but some of our initiatives in the past have closed that gap; it’s important to continue to grow our society in the direction of decreasing inequality, to make our communities stronger and safer for all future citizens.
This is not just about ‘handouts to the poor’, as National and ACT keep framing it, but about future-proofing our society so that we don’t go down the path of destruction that the USA, particularly, has travelled.
“No one is forced to eat KFC when they can boil up some spuds.” Aaaaaaah!
!!!!!
The New Zealand medical association is the most reactionary communist paternalist body in the country. And also massively self interested, to warm their behinds with a safe protected income and boss everybody else. Not that I’m not self interested. Alturism is the greatest crime. And yes as a commentator I assisted Fay Richwhite to do the Ayn Rand thing and privatise the railways. I wrote just about every article in favour.
The publicised part of Marmots comments was he advocated we all get on our bikes and abandon cars and trains. Actually the reason people want to drive and found cars liberating is it gives people sexual privacy. When cars were introduced it gave people a chance to escape and have sex in private. Liberation. Shut up and drive, as Rhianna says.Lack of sexual privacy from the neighbourhood busybodies and envious is what is pulling NZ down and why the intelligent and beautiful are fleeing in droves. Bikes and the modern cycling and skateboarding craze I hate. Bikes and skateboards are difficult to see for people with blurred or short vision and their simply a menace in an urban environment, and deeply anti social in my opinion. If you’ve got middle class genes from several generations ago you won’t get fat unless your abused by interventionist do gooder doctors perscribing fattening drugs in the aim or smoothing, calming. desexing you and de fertilizing you.
When David Lange said Rogernomics wasn’t going to be extended into the social area and gave tact support to every teacher and police union claim, he destroyed every point, Prebble was trying to make. To free and liberate NZ, the medical and nursing unions are the enemy who need to be broken. What the police need is the freedom to have sex with their hot 17 year old female fans and young female constables. What the teachers need is freedom from the socialist levelling Ann Tolley.