Inequity in healthcare use among older people after 2008: The case of Southern European Countries

Francesca Zantomio

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: Despite the sizeable cuts in public healthcare spending, part of the austerity measures recently undertaken in Southern European countries, little attention has been devoted to monitoring distributional aspects of healthcare usage. This study aims at measuring socioeconomic inequities in primary and secondary healthcare experienced some time after the crisis onset in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The analysis, based on data drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), focuses on older people, who generally face significantly higher healthcare needs, and whose health appeared to have worsened in the aftermath of the crisis. The Horizontal Inequity indexes reveal remarkable socioeconomic inequities in older people’s access to secondary healthcare in all three countries. In Portugal, the one country facing most severe healthcare budget cuts and where user charges apply also to GP visits, even access to primary care exhibits a significant pro-rich concentration. If reducing inequities in older people’s access to healthcare remains a policy objective, austerity measures maybe pulling the Olive belt countries further away from achieving it.

Keywords: Healthcare access; Older People; Horizontal Equity; Concentration Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I13 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Inequity in healthcare use among older people after 2008: The case of southern European countries (2017)
Working Paper: Inequity in healthcare use among older people after 2008: The case of Southern European Countries (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:yor:hectdg:17/06

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