The relationship between educational attainment and self-rated health among middle-aged and older adults in the United States was studied to determine whether depressive symptoms mediate the pathway. Cross-sectional data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 9,900) were analyzed using hierarchical multiple linear regression. Control variables include age, gender, and race. Bivariate correlations showed that higher educational attainment was associated with improved self-rated health (r = .336, p < .001) and fewer depressive symptoms (r = -.143, p < .001). Conducted multivariate analyses denoted a significant direct effect of education on self-rated health (B = 0.122, p < .001). The inclusion of the mediator significantly reduced the predictive power of depressive symptoms for reduced self-rated health (B = -0.421, p < .001), while the direct effect of education decreased to (B = 0.111), an indication of partial mediation. Continued gender- and race-based health disparities were observed in the fully adjusted model (R2 = .173, F(4, 9895) = 517.04, p < .001). These findings suggest that late-life mental health functions as a vital structural mechanism connecting socioeconomic factors to physical health perceptions, proposing that public health policies should integrate geriatric mental health interventions into their care system.