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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Letter of the Day
Creating fairness for all
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Kudos and congratulations to the Winnipeg Free Press for bringing attention to the health impact of poverty in the June 16 launch of your series Bottom Lines/Dividing Lines on the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
The life expectancy difference noted in your lead story, Prosper and live longer: stats, likely shocked many readers. Usually, when I ask people to guess how big they think the life expectancy difference is in low- versus high-income areas of Winnipeg, I get answers in the three- to five-year range.
That number would be disturbing enough considering that's about what some people estimate we would gain if we could cure all cancers. But the imaginary bus ride gives much higher numbers, a difference of 16 years for females and 13 years for males from south Pembina Highway toward downtown and the North End.
If you consider all of Winnipeg, the gap is even wider -- nearly 19 years for both males and females.
It doesn't have to be this way. We can change this, not largely through health care but by collectively creating a fairer community, where everyone can flourish. If we don't, together as a community, maximize the opportunities that lead to health for all (and particularly for our children and youth), then everyone pays.
Some pay with their tax dollars spent on health, justice and other services that could be avoided. Some pay by waiting for health care that could be more readily available if preventable poverty-driven illness and injury were reduced. And some pay the ultimate price -- with 19 years of their life.
DR. SANDE HARLOS
Winnipeg Health Region
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 23, 2012 A17
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