An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Wealth and Health Using the Survey of Consumer Finances

by Audra T. Wenzlow, John Mullahy, Stephanie A. Robert, and Barbara L. Wolfe We explore the relationship between health and wealth and between health and income using the Survey of Consumer Finances. We focus on the working-age population, describing the shape of the health-income and health-wealth gradients for individuals between ages 25 and 54. We find that the health-wealth relationship is weaker than the health-income relationship, and whereas health differences persist throughout the wealth distribution, there appears to be a threshold effect such that wealth increments are particularly important for health at the low end of the wealth distribution.