Region versus Class, or Region as Class? Framing Health Inequalities in France and Belgium

 Health inequalities are patterned quite differently in France and Belgium.  In the former, socioeconomic status and class are the main determinants of health status and mortality, whereas in the latter, region of residence has significant health effects above and beyond the different SES composition of regional populations.  Surprisingly, then, political discourse and policies aimed at reducing health inequalities are resolutely focused on geography in France, and on class in Belgium. This paper uses this puzzle to investigate the political and institutional determinants of health inequalities policy in the two countries, with the aim of producing hypotheses generalizable to a larger population of European democracies.