Universal Basic Salary: A Solution for Social Health Determinants

This paper examines the need for universal basic salary and its influence on social determinants of health. It explores the connection between income and health outcomes, and provides policy recommendations for a healthier program.

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UNIVERSAL BASIC SALARY IN LINE WITH SOCIAL HEALTH DETERMINANT
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Lecturer
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Introduction
This paper is going to examine the need for the federal government to provide universal basic
salary that is unconditional to the Australian citizens and how this can influence health.
Additionally, this paper will take into consideration the need for the government to provide
unconditional basic salary and how it can influence or how it is a factor that is closely linked to
social determinant of health. Towards the end, the paper will try to provide a policy
recommendation that can be done to make the policy healthier.
Literature review
According to Theiss & Regenstein (2017), the term universal basic income refers to
unconditional guarantee from the government, which entitles each citizen to receive a minimum
income irrespective of their working criteria. Universal basic income is also known as citizen
income or guaranteed minimum income. The intention behind this kind of payment is to provide
financial security that can be used by individuals to cover for the basic cost of living.
When we talk of social determinants of health, it refers to the conditions within the environment
or surrounding of an individual it consists of where a person was born, lives either work or play
that are capable of affecting a wide sphere of a person’s health, functioning and their standard of
life outcomes and risks (Hanna & Olken 2018, p. 226).
When the federal government talks of basic monthly income to be provided to all Australian
citizens, this seize to be an idea but something that needs to be put into practice. Looking back at
the social determinants of health, there is a large sphere of social context that influence and
affect the life of a person based on his environment. Colander (2019), posits that the relationship
between how people experience their environment and the impact of that place to their life is

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closely linked to the social life. With regard to Morgan (2019), the decision to issue out universal
basic income raises the question whether this scheme can be factor that may reduce inequities of
health or not. The widest or biggest social determinant of health all over the world is income. It
is the biggest determinant since it has the capacity of interacting or influencing the other SDH. It
acts as a pathway or the basis on which other determinants of health are built.
The main reason why the government should consider giving out UBI to it citizens is due to the
connection of income to other social determinants of health. Universal basic income has the
ability to sustainably reduce the inequities of health. The relationship between universal basic
income and other determinants of health are as follows (Stephens 2019, p. 37).
Early childhood development and UBI
Berman (2018), argues that the birth outcome can positively be influenced by UBI. From a
number of research such as the one carried out in Alaska, it is evident that UBI has helped
increase the birth weight by almost 38.8g and reduced the likelihood of low birthweight by 14%.
When the individuals income is supplemented by the government for instance through universal
basic income, it opens a doorway to access good nutrition for the neonate and healthcare. The
development of cognitive ability, the behavioral and physical domains of an individual is highly
influenced by the early childhood development, which can be facilitated by the issuance of UBI
by the government to expectant mothers (Straubhaar 2018, p. 9).
Education and universal basic income
The role of any form of education especially formal education is to shape an individual to be in a
position to sustain himself and meet the goas of the nation such as development. It is the function
of education to put in line or shape the economic, physical and mental outcomes of individuals.

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In addition, education will enable individuals to interact with income in their due course of life.
Numerous studies show that when basic income is provide by the government, the probability of
literacy in the society also go up. The rates of school dropout subside. The attainment of higher
levels of education has further resulted to increased levels of health among individuals. His has
come into pay for instance, through provision of UBI to the society levels of educational
achievement go up intern resulting to improved labor market thus contributing to support
systems in the social sphere and healthy lifestyles. From a research carried out in USA, children
from poor families whose parents were provided with UBI scored more than 15 points higher
compared to families that belonged to the control group. When income transfer is allocated to
citizens or families in the nation of Australia it opens opportunities for people to finish their
education especially at higher levels of learning giving them ability to be employable in the labor
market.
Link between psychological health and UBI
Hahn (2019), posits that mental health does not just imply having problem with perceiving things
but also means being in a position to think clearly and have no stress. It has been proven that
individuals with insecure or no income in addition to low levels of education are highly affiliated
to morbidity and stress. Directly or indirectly, the mental health of an individual either can be
stabilized through provision of income or improved levels of education. A number of research
have showed that many youths have reported feeling psychologically better after being awarded
UBI that helped improve their health status. This one of the reasons why the federal government
should issue out UBI.
Housing security/ health and universal basic income

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In line with Veenema (2019), the differences between the residence of individuals with high
income and low income are always distinct in such a way that needs no proof. The individuals
who live in areas that are deprived economically are highly susceptible to poor health, high
levels of social crimes and rates of dropout are high. Issuing UBI has the ability of enabling
individuals to find more descent houses and healthy environment to live in. when individuals are
given vouchers buy the government, it has proved to improve their health and social status.
Additionally the provision of UBI can help eradicate the issue of negative effects for instance the
rising levels of cost of drug and access to standardized health care.
According to Theiss & Regenstein (2017), the absence of government support the health of many
citizens living below a dollar, continue to deteriorate due to inability to access quality health.
There are increased mortality rate. When the federal government issues UBI to its citizens, there
are increased chances of improved health since quality; health can now be accessed by
individuals.
There are two main models that the government can use to guarantee its citizens UBI without
finding many difficulties. They include the negative income tax (NIT) and universal demogrant
(UD).
Negative income Tax
Negative income tax is a form of UBI that the government can use to supplement the income of
families who are accrued to low income. In this case, the negative taxation on the families with
low income is clawed back in form of salary increment on the other hand; universal demogrant
model refers to the non-taxable benefit to all citizens without considering their levels of income
(Runyan 2018, pp. 550 ).

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The government should not worry on which kind of model to use but rather it should pay
attention to ensure that the minimum income that an individual is guaranteed should be in line
with the monetary resources that are rudimentary for an individual to have healthy and abundant
life.
When we talk of UBI it should not just target a certain group of people rather, all people
including children should benefit from this kind of help with aim of reducing the levels of
poverty.
Policy recommendations to be used by the government to make UBI healthier
With the aim of providing universal income to the citizens of Australia from the federal
government, to improve their social determinants of health, the government needs to find Ways
that it can find the capital needed to help the citizens and make the policy healthier and
workable. There are a number of recommendations that the government can deploy to make this
policy healthier.
The government can fund basic income through increasing the amount of taxation or fines on
criminals and bad things that we need less or are harmful to our lives. Some of the products that
the government can increase their prices include thing that we need less in our lives such as
luxuries for instance, cigarettes, hard drinks such as alcohol, pollution of the environment,
financial transaction and being in possession of extreme wealth. From whatever the government
gets, it has to put part of it to the UBI program Runyan 2018, p. 179).
Consequently, to make this program of UBI stronger in the nation, the government needs to
divide its citizen into three categories such as children, adults and the aged. This division will
facilitate the government to find a way of distributing the basic income without leaving one

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single group out. By doing so, the government can introduce it alongside other existing form of
help. With regard to this, the UBI does not need to be that much but it should be of a reasonable
amount that can help an individual meet his basic needs and live above the poverty line.
A healthy policy that can help UBI remain into practice after implementation by the government
requires the government to ensure that the universal distribution will not cause any form of
inflation on the economy. To make the policy healthier, we recommend that the government
should try to replace portions of the existing social spending through introducing UBI. Instead of
the government increasing taxation to fund this initiative, we recommend that the government
should try and drew from their discretionary capital or by repurposing non-discretional capital
from its existing budget that has been certified. Because UBI can help solve problems such as
house security and mental illness, it should consider this recommendation (Shingles 2018, p. ).
Consequently, the success of UBI implementation is highly dependent on the how the message
of UBI will be delivered to citizens. We hereby recommend that the policy makers and the
government stakeholders should try to present a massage that is coordinated to the citizens. This
will call for clear understanding of the government structure by not making those who are most
vulnerable worse off by targeting to maximize the citizen’s benefit. Additionally we recommend
that the government should try to collaborate with the existing social services through interacting
with the current social programs and finding a way out for increasing net safety.

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List of references
Berman, M. (2018) ‘Resource rents, universal basic income, and poverty among Alaska’s
Indigenous peoples’, World Development, 106, pp. 161–172
Colander, D. (2019) ‘How Much will a Universal Basic Income Plan Cost?’, Eastern Economic
Journal, 45(2), pp. 321–326.
Hahn, R. A. (2019) ‘Two Paths to Health in All Policies: The Traditional Public Health Path and
the Path of Social Determinants’, American Journal of Public Health, 109(2), pp. 253–254.
Hanna, R. and Olken, B. A. (2018) ‘Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers: Anti-
Poverty Programs in Developing Countries’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(4), pp. 201–
226.
Mencinger, J. (2017) ‘Universal Basic Income and Helicopter Money’, Basic Income Studies,
12(2), pp. 1–8
Morgan, R. (2019) ‘Find out Whether Universal Income Works’, Fortune, 179(1), pp. 72–74.
Runyan, C. N. (2018) ‘Assessing social determinants of health in primary care: Liability or
opportunity?’, Families, Systems, & Health, 36(4), pp. 550–552.
Shingles, R. R. (2018) ‘Beyond the List of Traits: Addressing and Assessing Cultural Needs of
Patients in Health Care Settings’, Kinesiology Review, 7(2), pp. 173–179.
Stephens, R. (2019) ‘The Universal Basic Income: should it replace the existing social security
system?’, Policy Quarterly, 15(1), pp. 30–37.

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Straubhaar, T. (2018) ‘Universal Basic Income - New Answers to New Questions for the
German Welfare State in the 21st Century’, CESifo Forum, 19(3), pp. 3–9.
Theiss, J. and Regenstein, M. (2017) ‘Facing the Need: Screening Practices for the Social
Determinants of Health’, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45(3),
Veenema, T. G. (2019) ‘Climate Change-Related Hurricane Impact on Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands, Environment Risk Reduction, and the Social Determinants of Health’, Nursing
Economic$, 37(1), pp. 13–22.