Around the world, as in the United States, concern is growing about who gets health care. Individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds face distressingly different prospects of living a healthy life. Disparities in various measures of health between the privileged and the deprived still remain wide, despite the long-term tendency toward a healthier society. Some investigators believe the shift in the health care system in industrial countries from the principle of universal access to a more market-oriented system may be one cause of the growing disparities; rising income inequality is another potential culprit. Policy makers worldwide speak of more efficiently delivering essential' health care---but disagree on what counts as essential and on the optimal mix of private and government components of service. After reviewing the economic and epidemiological literature on disparities in health and health care systems, the question of how to define essential' health care is considered. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the analysis.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
9870.
Length: Date of creation: Jul 2003 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9870
Note: HE Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Phone: 617-868-3900 Email: Web page: http://www.nber.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().
Related research
Keywords:
Find related papers by JEL classification: I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)