Whether you're comfortable with America's gaping income inequality or not, I think we can all agree that this really shouldn't be happening:
People whose net worth is over $70,000, the median in the United States, are 30 percent less likely than poorer people to feel pain at the end of their lives, a difference that persists even when controlling for age and severity of illness, a new study shows.
The findings, which appear in the August issue of The Journal of Palliative Medicine, used information on more than 2,600 adults over 70 who died from 1993 to 1998. The researchers interviewed proxies, usually surviving spouses, to gather information about pain, depression, delirium and difficulties in breathing or eating at life's end.
Wealth was a strong predictor of how many different types of discomfort an older adult suffered, with those whose net worth was over $70,000 having a 9 percent lower risk of experiencing multiple symptoms.
There's much in life that I think is perfectly justified in being dependent on income. How nice your TV is, or how many square feet are in your home. Whether you drive a Corolla or an Avalon.
But not death. Never death. Working for low wages should not mean more pain, depression, and suffering than working for high wages. It should not mean worse medical care and fewer end-of-life options. Let the rich have vacations and homes and cars and cruises, but only if the poor have dignity and relief. At the end of their lives, we at least owe them that.
