Health disparities: You ain’t seen nothing yet

A survey in the UK showed that the gap in health between rich and poor is widening. From the US perspective that comes as a bit of a surprise. After all, don’t the Brits have universal healthcare through the NHS?But of course, social determinants of health such as diet, exercise, stress, access to transportation, and education play a bigger role in health than the healthcare system. With socioeconomic disparities widening, it serves to reason that health disparities will grow, too.So where do things go from here? They probably get worse –that’s my guess. Current political and economic forces in the US, UK and elsewhere point toward an exacerbation of current gaps. And as climate change makes the world a generally harsher environment it’s the poor who will be more adversely affected by floods, fires, air pollution, etc.But in a decade or two that will be nothing compared with the haves and have nots wrought by the advancement of medical technology. Expect the well off to increasingly invest in tools that let them get further ahead: for example cyborg inventions that augment intelligence, strength, vision, hearing and more. Not to mention artificial organs and genetic interventions to greatly extend life.Will such modifications make people happy? Maybe not. But it will enable them to lord it over the rest of society to an increasingly greater degree.Enjoy!