Income-related inequality in health and health care in the European Union

✍ Scribed by Eddy van Doorslaer; Andrew M. Jones

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 77 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-9230
• DOI: 10.1002/hec.917

✦ Synopsis

Europe has a long history of developing social protection systems which are rooted in the egalitarian tradition. Health care is no exception and most European Union member states have long achieved fairly universal coverage for their populations for a rather comprehensive package of health care services [1]. Recent trends of rapidly ageing populations and expanding technological opportunities have not only challenged the affordability of these systems but also their commitment to equitable access for all, including the socially weaker groups. While this challenge is not unique to European countries, what is unique in the European setting is that the process of economic and monetary unification puts some pressure on countries to harmonize their social policies. At the special European summit in Lisbon in March 2000, for the first time, social policy was explicitly introduced as a distinct focus of attention for European cooperation. It was agreed that common objectives for eradication of poverty and social exclusion would be adopted, that national policies would be designed to meet these, and that progress would be monitored. One tangible outcome of this process was a book on Indicators of social inclusion in the EU edited by Tony Atkinson et al.

[2] which, among other things, set out a number of recommendations for the development of quantitative indicators to be used for monitoring trends in the multidimensional concepts of poverty and social exclusion. As a result of this trend towards European social policy harmonization, crosscountry comparative information on social inequalities and exclusion (in terms of health or other dimensions) has gained additional relevance in Europe.