Could inequality in health be cured by universal coverage for all citizens?

Markus Luengen (1) , Martin Siegel (2) , Karl Lauterbach (2)

1 Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology
2 Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology

The well documented social gradient in health in the developed world will not just disappear on its own. Tackling health inequalities by introducing a universal coverage healthcare system recently became an important notion in the U.S. Using cross-sectional data from Germany which has maintained its compulsory egalitarian healthcare system for more than fifty years now, we apply logistic and negative binomial regression to uncover utilization behavior patterns under universal coverage. We find that lower education and unemployment raise the risks for all diseases under consideration. Unemployment increases the chance of contacting a physician, while income and education do apparently not affect the healthcare utilization behavior. Those diseases concentrated among unemployed and less educated, however, are associated with intensified healthcare utilization. We conclude that universal coverage may make access to healthcare easier for those facing the worst health; the unemployed and lower educated.

Mots clés: Medicine

Markus Luengen, Martin Siegel, Karl Lauterbach. Could inequality in health be cured by universal coverage for all citizens?. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 2011, 65 (3), pp.249. ⟨10.1111/j.1742-1241.2010.02487.x⟩. ⟨hal-00614648⟩