It’s a disgrace: Healthcare varies with your income and address. This is due to the fact that wealthier people are in a better position to seek and receive superior quality healthcare and to pay for treatments. It’s especially true in countries without universal health coverage; for example, in the U.S., health insurance is connected with your job, there are many different plans at differing costs, the price of medical treatment can be very high, and you can be left with huge medical bills. You can even go bankrupt, just for being unlucky enough to get sick or injured. In contrast, in low-income countries there are other challenges that limit people’s access to healthcare–like healthcare facilities being not well equipped and not having enough trained carers, and people having to pay for expensive treatments out of their own pockets.
The size of the problem is large. More than 3.5 billion people across the world don’t have access to healthcare, and the main reason is poverty.
These inequalities in the availability of healthcare cause terrible consequences every single day. For instance, in low-income countries, children are dying from diarrhea diseases that are both easily avoided and treated. Other preventable, treatable diseases that kill millions in low-income countries include tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and COVID-19. Maternal death rates are also higher in low-income countries.
Morbidity and mortality studies show that people in low-income countries die from HIV/AIDS more than those in high-income countries, including in the U.S., since they cannot easily access life-saving medicines such as antiretroviral therapies. Even poor people with HIV/AIDS in high-income countries die more than the rich because they cannot pay for such therapies.
You shouldn’t have your income determine your ability to get a vaccine, visit a doctor, and receive medications and treatments that could extend your life, but, regrettably, this is the world we live in. It is time to change it.
Sustainable Development Goals Aim for Better Healthcare Access
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a vision for a world with greater equality, less environmental impact, and no poverty. Universal health coverage is one of the main objectives of SDG 3, which seeks to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”
This SDG also states that universal healthcare is a human right and that shrinking gaps in healthcare access should be a priority worldwide. Governments, organizations, charities, and even individual people can help.
Since healthcare and income levels are tied, one of the main ways to reduce healthcare inequalities is to eliminate poverty. As more countries and communities rise from poverty, they will be more able to build and equip hospitals, train and employ doctors and nurses, fund vaccine programs, and improve their healthcare systems. However, in the short term, people and communities in poverty need help accessing healthcare services. This is important since poor access to healthcare is not only a consequence of poverty but also a cause of it. People who are living in poverty are more likely to suffer from bad health because they have difficulties getting healthcare, and this poor health makes it difficult to escape poverty. It’s very hard to keep a job or get a better one that pays more and improves your prospects when you are in poor health.
Islamic Relief USA Works for Healthcare Access
Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) is the largest Muslim faith-based charity in the United States, and it is working to increase access to healthcare for people in need in some of the most vulnerable communities and regions of the world.
For instance, IRUSA and its partners have been providing health aid in Gaza, where the health sector has been nearly destroyed in total. Skin infections and intestinal diseases are on the rise in the makeshift camps where millions of displaced individuals and families are living after being driven from their homes by bombs and violence. Even polio—very rare to contract in the U.S. and eradicated in Europe—made a reappearance in Gaza in 2024. With the help of its many donors, IRUSA has been able to supply Gaza’s hospitals with emergency medical supplies that have benefited 847,222 people. IRUSA also has provided outpatient care and treatments to 841,240 people, trained 120 people in emergency first aid so they can save others, and trained 40 people in midwifery to care for mothers during births.
IRUSA is also supporting healthcare in other countries, like Jordan, where it has equipped a mobile clinic treating Syrian refugees. In Sudan, it helped to increase the capacity of hospitals and clinics, and in Yemen, it delivered an emergency response to a cholera outbreak. Here at home in the U.S., IRUSA is helping healthcare clinics that provide care for uninsured people and low-income communities.
All of IRUSA’s health programs are helping people in poor, remote, vulnerable, or suffering communities to get the medical assistance they require. Ultimately, IRUSA aims to achieve goals that are similar to many of the SDGs—like a world without poverty, and a world where someone’s income and situation in life do not affect their ability to access healthcare. To learn more about Islamic Relief USA and its healthcare efforts, visit irusa.org/health.