ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the experiences of low-income households with children, documenting the extent and nature of their exclusion from good health. Adults and children in poverty have more illnesses, more disabilities and shorter lives that their better-off counterparts. As a group, not only are their health care needs greater than those of more affluent groups, they are also different. Reducing poverty is key to improving the health of low-income groups and tackling social inequalities in health. However, the evidence suggests that poverty levels have risen and social inequalities in health have widened. Over the last decade, a strong theme developed in the literature on poverty has been the link between the poverty and social exclusion. Writers have documented the development of new social divisions and the interrelated forms of social exclusion that have emerged (Lister 1990, 1997, Room 1995, Walker 1997). While many of these discussions focus on the notions of poverty, citizenship and social exclusion, they draw attention, although often only in an oblique fashion, to health exclusion as a dimension of poverty. As social divisions and poverty are corrosive of full citizenship (Lister 1997), they are also corrosive of full health.
