"Wealth equals health"


Dr. John Haggie, President, Canadian Medical Association 

and Pat Martin, MP Winnipeg Centre


"If you are at the bottom 10th percentile of income in this country, your disease-free life expectancy at birth - that period of time you can expect to live before you develop chronic health disease - is 52 years. The Canadian average is 68 years. If you are in the top 10 percent of family revenue in this country, your average disease-free life expectancy at birth is 78 years - a difference of 26 years, best to worse. When it comes to the well-being of Canadians, the old saying that wealth equals health continues to ring true."

- Dr. John Haggie, past-president of the Canadian Medical Association in an address to NDP MPs Thursday morning in St. John's during the party's national caucus. 

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