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Poverty and disease - a permanent vicious circle
Sick arms global
1.2 billion people in our world suffer from elemental poverty at less than a dollar a day. This makes people sick: they have no permanent residence or their homes are so tight that pathogens easily spread from person to person; the water to which they have access is contaminated with germs; the toilets are either colonized with bacteria and viruses or are completely missing. They are malnourished, there is no public health care, and they lack even the simplest means of protecting themselves, such as mosquito nets or mouthguards.
Poverty leads to diseases and diseases lead to poverty (stephm2506 / fotolia.com) Poverty due to illness
More than 100 million people are impoverished because they have to pay for medicine themselves. Not only physical, but also mental illnesses can lead to impoverishment, because those affected can no longer do their work. A WHO report says that nearly ten percent of people suffer from depression.
Germany - the paradise of health insurance?
Anyone who has to pay for therapies themselves faces financial ruin. This is a conclusion of the WHO: Lack of health insurance makes poor. Patients in the statutory health insurance in Germany enjoy treatment in the event of illness, for which people in other countries have to grab their own bag or suffer if they have no funds.
Medical Association and debt counseling
Doctors' Association of Lower Saxony and debt counseling of Diakonie Hannover-Land, however, also hold for Germany: poverty through over-indebtedness leads to illness.
indebtedness
The Diakonie advises people who have become so indebted that they can not pay their debts, even if they reduce all costs for basic expenses to a minimum.
How many are affected
According to the debt collection company Creditreform in Germany, these are at least 6.7 million affected persons. Bremen is at the top with 14%, Bavaria with 7.2% at the end.
Sunk in poverty
According to the Joint Welfare Association, 68% of debt counseling clients live on less than € 900 per month and have to pay debts of around € 23,000.
No money for medicines
One study found that 65% of sufferers do not afford medications prescribed by doctors. 61% did not go to a doctor because of the practice fee.
High disease rate
The over-indebted but would need such visits to the doctor and drugs bitter, because they suffer from diseases far more than the average: With more than 40% mentally ill, over-indebted people in this area one of the highest rates. 38% are struggling with diseases of the spine and one in four must resort to home remedies for hypertension. Sleep disorders and headaches are extremely common.
Unhealthy lifestyle
The over-indebted additionally get into an unhealthy lifestyle. They no longer have any money for sports clubs, sportswear or excursions and can not pay for healthy, and therefore expensive, food.
They smoke more, they drink more alcohol and they take more sedative than the average.
Arms die early
Being physically marginalized Not only are they more frequently ill and unable to afford medication, they also die eleven years earlier than the average of the population.
Men under the poverty line die on average at 70, 1 years, men with more than 150% of the average income at 80.9 years.
Poor by illness
People are getting poor not only from poverty, but also from illness. Buy-addicts, for example, are in debt because they buy useless things in quantities; Bipolar people spend money in manic phases that they do not have.
People who can no longer carry out their work because of chronic diseases slip into the Hartz IV trap after one year of unemployment.
Over-indebtedness as a disease symptom
Buyers buy mainly on the Internet and hide their illness. Often, they only realize that they are not well, when the relationship is broken and the house is mortgaged. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)