Ways Socio-Economic Class and Social Situation Impact Health and Care

This report delves into the significant impact of a person's socio-economic class on their health and access to social care services. It defines socio-economic class as a reflection of an individual's economic status, determined by income, education, and occupation, which directly influences their ability to afford healthcare. The report explores how different social classes—upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, working, and poor—experience varying levels of access to healthcare, treatment options, and overall well-being. It highlights how financial resources, social standing, and access to information affect health outcomes. The report emphasizes that those with higher incomes and social status tend to have better access to quality healthcare, while those from lower socio-economic backgrounds face significant barriers, including limited financial resources, which restricts their access to essential treatments and medications. The report underscores the need for government policies and interventions to address these disparities, ensuring equitable healthcare access for all social classes.

INTRODUCTION TO
HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE
Table of Contents

TITLE........................................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................9

TITLE
“Ways in which a person’s socio-economic class and his/her social situation can have an
impact of his/her health.”
INTRODUCTION
The socio economic class of a person refers to their economic status as per their earnings and position in
society on the basis of income, education and occupation. It includes the overall financial condition and
social situation of an individual which impacts on their health (Barer, 2017). It involves that people can
afford health care services according to their income or budget which allows them for limited expense in
their regular lives. The present report is based on impact of social economic condition of an individual on
their well-being. It will also include description about effects on health of people belongs to different
social groups.
MAIN BODY
There are various kinds of people are living in a country having different social values, education,
income and occupation which reflect their socio- economic condition in society. Every person has their
own ethical norms and thoughts according to which spend their lives through conducting their regular
work respectively. However, as per several social factors, an individual has their own reputation among
society which can be created by their ancestors or by their own. There are several other factors which are
involves in social status such as standing, esteem, respect, prestige, intelligence, beauty, money, land,
assets and many more. Meanwhile, the basic elements include funds and assets which make a person
capable to afford overall those things which are necessary for completing their lifestyle requirements
properly (Stoddart and Evans, 2017). In addition to this, health care services are important for people to
become disease free while suffered by some severe health problems. It involves different types of health
problems which has differentiated diagnosis, medications and treatments. It is observed and analyzed that

various kinds of disease are really critical and required much expensive treatment including
chemotherapies, surgical treatment and other medications. There are different types of social classes
living in same place which are given below.
Firstly, it involves Upper Class which mainly involve people having very high income such as
institutional leadership, heads of multinational corporations, foundations and universities (O'connor,
2017). It also includes owner of lands, stocks, bonds and assets whop earns high income monthly or
annually. They have effective budget and such people are perfectly able to afford every expensive need of
their lifestyle easily. These people are generally considered as very reputed in society and every common
person dream to spend lives like them. Now, talking about their health, then they are become very much
able to afford best or expensive medication and treatment immediately so that they can remain fit always,
such people remain very busy and they have their family doctors how conduct their routine checkups on
regular basis so that they are capable enough to gain expensive treatments in order to become diseases
free while get suffered from aby severe health issue. In addition to this, they already have assets or funds
in millions which have gained by ancestors and remaining they have earned by their own efforts so that
such individuals pay huge amount of money as taxation which may earned by a common person in 5
years. These people are economically strong due to having lots of money and societal value as well
because people pay respect to them.
Secondly, Upper Middle Class represented scientific and technical knowledge involving
engineers, accountants, lawyers, architectures, university faculty, managers and directors or
public & private organizations (Bornstein and Bradley, 2014). Such people have less income than
people included in upper class but still have much amount of income so that they afford every
expensive thing in their life.it takes a particular period of time but they can arrange the same to
fulfil specific need of life. Apart from this, these group of people have high budget of income
and prestige among society due to their high standards of living. They face a little difficulty but

can afford expensive things in their lives and fulfil basic needs in appropriate manner. In terms
of their health care situation, they can afford every expensive treatments or medication in people
way without delaying the appointment of checkups or treating process. They are sufficiently
capable to afford to take effective as well as efficient medications, treatments or diagnosis
respectively. This class has income more than middle class but less than upper class but still they
are sufficiently able to spend their lives easily through purchasing expensive things for spending
their preferred lifestyle. However, they are capable to afford their medical and health care
requirements properly in order to gain desired medication in terms of becoming health as well as
fit.
Thirdly, lower middle class families which have enough income of fulfil their basic needs
properly but can’t easily afford high amount of money in limited duration of time for specific
expensive need (England, 2017). It basically includes people conduct clerical work,
administrative tasks, provide help to professionals, engage in data collection, record keeping,
paralegals, bank tellers, sales, blue collar workers in skilled trades and many more. These people
have efficiency to fulfil their basic requirements of life but not fulfil high status lifestyle needs so
that they prefer to spend a simple lifestyle to maintain their expenses in their monthly budget of
income. However, this group of people put efforts for years to save lakhs to deal with severe
threat of their life. In addition to this, they are capable to put income on minor medications and
treatments for fever, headache, typhoid etc. but not capable financially to afford expensive
treatment for several critical health issues like cancer, tuberculosis, HIV and many more which
are considered as deadly disease. Sometimes it is observed that such people requires particular
duration of time due to which patient may dead because health care organizations never start
treatments without deposition of complete amount of money. Moreover, these people lost their

loving ones many times due to not having much money on the spot for spending on their
treatments as well as medications. At last but not the least, this group of only efficient to fulfil
basic needs but not capable to complete expensive requirements in their lives.
Furthermore, the working class is also including on the categories of status in society
which bit poor than lower middle class family and put efforts to fulfil the basic needs of life such
a food, water, clothing and shelter. It is also considered as labor class because people involving
in this category perform several occupational work including craft workers, laborers in factories,
restaurant workers, nursing home staff, repair shops, garages and delivery services. These people
are considered as small scale individuals and high society will think about them as per their work
along with treating them in same way. These people are able to fulfil their basic needs of life but
they do not have much income for their working so that they are not capable to arrange huge
amount of money for an expensive requirement of their lives. In case of their health care needs,
they can only afford minor medications but not have access to expensive treatments so that such
individuals remain suffered from severe diseases and face their critical impacts till the death.
Government has a policy of providing some specific medications for free of cost which are
beneficial to them (Fairweather and et. al., 2017). In some of countries, medicines for
tuberculosis or HIV is free and several medications are also provided at very low cost which is
helpful to reduce health problems from lives of lower middle class people living in the nation.
At last but not the least, it involves poor class which includes people below poverty line
and work on full time wages to earn limited amount of money through they can only eat meal in
a day. It is necessary for them to gain benefits from government policies or other sources for
having even meal properly. This category is considered as very small levelled people and many
times they are not consider as equal to other high status families due to their poor socio

economic condition. In context of health, they are not able to afford any kind of medication but
totally depends upon free of cost treating camps or medications from government to remain
disease free. They are not capable to afford expensive treatments and consider home remedies or
other low cost medicines respectively. At last, it is necessary for government authorities to focus
on medical requirements of such groups living in a society by providing appropriate
compensations in order to fulfil their health desires.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluding that socio economic class of a person refers to their
economic status as per their earnings and position in society on the basis of income and education. It
includes several factors which decide an individual’s social and economic situation in society such as
income, assets, physical capability, intelligence, esteem, respect and many more. Moreover, it involves
several classes of such as upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class and poor
class which have their different range of income and lifestyles.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barer, M., 2017. Why are some people healthy and others not?. Routledge.
Stoddart, G. L. and Evans, R. G., 2017. Producing health, consuming health care. In Why are
some people healthy and others not? (pp. 27-64). Routledge.
O'connor, J., 2017. The fiscal crisis of the state. Routledge.
Bornstein, M. H. and Bradley, R. H., 2014. Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child
development. Routledge.
England, P., 2017. Households, employment, and gender: A social, economic, and demographic
view. Routledge.
Fairweather, G. W. and et. al., 2017. Community life for the mentally ill: An alternative to
institutional care. Routledge.