Social class is dead. Discuss with reference to its influence on health.

Social inequalities in health have long been recognised.  Though there were reports as far back as the mid-nineteenth century that the poor experienced more illness, it was in the early 1980s that these inequalities became a hot topic in the fields of sociology and social policy.  In 1980, Townsend and Davidsons The Black Report was the first major piece of research that brought attention to the class divide in health.  This report showed that despite the claims and endeavours of the NHS to provide free healthcare to all social classes, the working class had much higher morbidity rates and mortality rates than the middle and upper classes….(short extract)