Health for Everyone?

Abstract

Health is one of the main components of a good life. In addition to having value in itself, good health also translates into a better chance of succeeding in education and in the labour market – ultimately contributing to enhance opportunities for people to improve their standing in life. At the same time, inequalities in income and educational attainment contribute to health inequality. Ensuring that everyone, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, has access to the health system can help make sure that economic prosperity is shared by the entire population. This publication analyses inequalities in health and health systems and thus provides a key insight for the discussion of how societies can become more inclusive. It looks into socio-economic differences in the exposure to risk factors to health, health status, the utilisation of health services, unmet health care needs and coverage. To assess these inequalities, the report undertakes detailed analyses of micro-level data from a range of national health surveys representing 33 OECD and EU countries, presenting differences between the most and least well-off as well as population-level summary measures of inequalities.