Inequality of Opportunity and How Social Determinants of Health Affect Inequalities

INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
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Inequality of Opportunity
Introduction
Living conditions for people across the world are vastly unequal as a result of the developments that have taken place in the last two centuries. For example, some countries have become more developed than others, and even the conditions within a country differ across the populations. These differences have become the crux of the debates on inequalities in such dimensions as income, wealth, education, and health. Observers have expressed that opportunity is the critical element in inequality. This is based on the assumption that all people make efforts, and the efforts they make cannot be used as a moral argument for disparities. This essay defines the term inequality of opportunity and argues that this concept significantly impacts health and well-being.
Inequality of Opportunity
The term inequality of opportunity has been extensively studied and defined by economists. According to Brunori, Palmisano, and Peragine (2019, p. 6428), inequality of opportunity can be defined as the difference between individuals' outcomes systematically correlated with morally irrelevant circumstances, including the area of birth, ethnicity, and socio-economic background. Inequality of opportunity is considered an illegitimate form of inequality since its causes are not attributed to individual choices (Aizawa, 2020, p. 166). Therefore, equality of opportunity can be achieved when all people share the same opportunities and enjoy better income, health, and well-being, regardless of the circumstances they face.
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health are described as the conditions in which people live, are born, and work that shape health. A variety of determinants can be categorized into economic stability, neighborhood and physical environment, food, education, healthcare systems, and community and social contexts. Under economic stability, the social determinants include employment, debt, income, and medical bills. Neighborhood and physical environment comprise a housing, transport, safety, playground, and geography. The health care system includes such elements as health coverage, quality of care, and provider availability. Under education, language, literacy, and higher education are the key determinants (Artiga and Hinton, 2018, p. 2). Overall, all these factors determine the ability of an individual to access healthcare and shape the health outcomes of the individual.
The social determinants of health affect inequalities in health and well-being. When individuals cannot have access to quality care, their health conditions could worsen, which means that their health status deteriorates. The same applies when there is no health coverage in a geographical area, which means that people cannot access care. The elements under economic stability often affect specific individuals' health inequality and well-being. For example, employment and income affect the affordability of health care among ...