As a reader of this wellness blog, you probably agree that education and health are foundational to a high-performing society. You probably understand that education and health are economic imperatives that enable increased individual performance and contributions to society as a whole. You likely also believe that public access to education and health is a critical ingredient in our society’s status and in our performance in and contribution to the broader marketplace.
All of these things are true. Studies have shown that investments in education and health can have far-ranging returns for society as a whole. Yet we, as a country, have given mostly lip service to the importance of both despite the critical benefits they can provide. In education and health, we risk our society’s global standing unless we challenge the models for education and health under which we operate and finally put our money where our mouth says it is.
As a capitalistic society, our existing models for education and health have developed largely based on maximizing revenue potential. These models demand the best experienced professionals with advanced degrees to enable the institutions to command the highest premium.
While this has led to a thriving private sector for education and health, it has resulted in a growing wage gap between private and public roles in both education and health – for example, private university/hospital presidents vs. public university/hospital presidents – as well as between “administrative” and “practitioner” roles such as insurance executives versus doctors.
Based on this wage gap, today’s public colleges and universities generally struggle to compete with their private counterparts for talent. Similarly, for those in the health field, positions with big, private business are generally more lucrative than positions with public health organizations and institutions. The health system suffers from the additional challenge of an economic model based on the treatment of disease rather than the prevention of it. (When you profit more from sickness, wellness holds little incentive.) Add to that the pay inequities for women and underrepresented candidates and the playing field becomes even more uneven.
The rise in private institutions, the resulting wage gap and the challenges of a reverse incentive system for health has ultimately threatened equal access to both education and health. It has created a quality gap between public and private education and health. As this quality gap widens, the education and health of the public weakens significantly.
After all, education and health are interdependent. Studies have shown that the more educated we are, the healthier we are, and vice versa. Higher learning typically results in a higher likelihood that we are aware of and practice healthy behaviors.
