Thursday, July 9, 2015
J210 (13 rue de l'Université)
Disparities in health between socioeconomic groups are a persistent form of stratification in all societies. Since health provides individuals with opportunities and influences their quality of life, research has paid
considerable attention to the explanation of health inequalities. Re-cently, studies have started to look beyond individual-level explanatory factors (e.g. healthy lifestyle, stress levels, etc.) by including macro-level
determinants such as income inequality, social capital and welfare regimes in their analyses. However, the role of the healthcare system has been widely neglected in this line of research. Theoretically, healthcare systems can have different effects on inequality levels. On the one hand, it is argued that access to health care increases inequalities since high status persons use preventive and curative services more often and have preferential access to high quality care. On the other hand, scholars have argued that in most developed nations universal access to healthcare has been established which might decrease inequality levels if healthcare restores the poor health of low status citizens. The contrasting theoretical expectations demonstrate that there is a need for a systematic evaluation under which conditions healthcare reduces or reproduces existing inequalities or even triggers new ones. One prominent condition is the institutional set-up of the healthcare system since it influences to what extent access to high quality care is equal or stratified by education, income or residence. In this paper, I will investigate the role of healthcare by combining institutional indicators on European healthcare
systems with micro-data on individuals' health status from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement (SHARE) and the Health and Retirement Study
(HRS).
considerable attention to the explanation of health inequalities. Re-cently, studies have started to look beyond individual-level explanatory factors (e.g. healthy lifestyle, stress levels, etc.) by including macro-level
determinants such as income inequality, social capital and welfare regimes in their analyses. However, the role of the healthcare system has been widely neglected in this line of research. Theoretically, healthcare systems can have different effects on inequality levels. On the one hand, it is argued that access to health care increases inequalities since high status persons use preventive and curative services more often and have preferential access to high quality care. On the other hand, scholars have argued that in most developed nations universal access to healthcare has been established which might decrease inequality levels if healthcare restores the poor health of low status citizens. The contrasting theoretical expectations demonstrate that there is a need for a systematic evaluation under which conditions healthcare reduces or reproduces existing inequalities or even triggers new ones. One prominent condition is the institutional set-up of the healthcare system since it influences to what extent access to high quality care is equal or stratified by education, income or residence. In this paper, I will investigate the role of healthcare by combining institutional indicators on European healthcare
systems with micro-data on individuals' health status from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement (SHARE) and the Health and Retirement Study
(HRS).
