Financial resources are central to why Michigan residents lag behind other states’ residents in health outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality rates, according to a new report released this week by a major research group.
The report by the Citizens Research Council, called “Social Determinants of Health: Pathways to a Healthier Michigan,” looks at why Michiganians suffer from worse health outcomes than people in comparable, neighboring states and across the U.S. The research took nearly two years to complete.
Social determinants of health are social, cultural, environmental, financial and political factors that influence a person’s health, said Karley Abramson, health policy research associate for the council, during a virtual press conference Tuesday.
“Michigan needs to focus on improving financial resources, in terms of direct resources, like income, but also the source of those financial resources,” including education and employment, she said.
Abramson said Michigan not only has poor health outcomes, it also has larger health disparities between populations than other states. Two of the outcomes that Michigan lags behind in are life expectancy at birth and Black infant mortality rate.
The report focused on five “fundamental” resources that the council says “are necessary for individual health”: financial resources; health care; food and nutrition; safety; and social support. The report emphasizes “the centrality” of financial resources in the story of Michigan residents’ lagging health outcomes.
“If you’re sick and you need a medication to get better, to get that medication, you need a diagnosis from a doctor,” which means you have to go to a doctor and have to afford the doctor, Abramson said.
She said Michigan lags behind other Midwestern states in per capita personal income. She said education and employment are the “building blocks” to obtaining financial resources, and how Michigan fares in those areas compared to other states is “also pretty poor.”
The key to making Michigan’s population healthier is a “better educated system and a more robust, fairer economy,” Abramson said.
She said the report was meant to provide “a grounding” for policymakers and get them to focus on “how public health is much more than health policy.”
“And while health policy is very necessary for better health outcomes, health outcomes are largely driven by other things, and it’s very important that we be focusing on those things,” she said.
asnabes@detroitnews.com