Income can significantly impact one's access to healthcare and overall health outcomes. Income influences health care in various methods: access to preventative services, health behaviors, such as chronic disease management, and geographic disparities. Poor access to preventative services can significantly affect one’s overall health outcomes. Inadequate access to these services for income-related reasons can delay detecting health issues. Unfortunately, this can lead to even more complicated and costly treatment due to increased severity of conditions or new additional comorbidities. Income also significantly impacts one’s health behaviors by influencing their choices regarding diet, exercise, and medication and treatment adherence.

For example, lower-income individuals may have difficulty accessing healthy food choices due to increased grocery costs, living in a food desert, or simply a lack of time to prepare and cook nutritious meals. This specific health behavior can be significantly harmful to individuals with conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Additionally, lower-income individuals often struggle with medication and treatment adherence due to the excess cost, lack of health insurance coverage, and due to work and time constraints (Rohatgi et al., 2021).