Can We Learn From History? Policy Responses and Strategies to Meet Health Care Needs in Times of Severe Economic Crisis

The current economic crisis appears to be the worst since the Great Depression. Severe problems in the financial sector have spread to the rest of the economy and resulted in falling exports, rising unemployment, government budget deficits and economic contraction in many countries. Research has shown a significant relationship between unemployment and poor health at both the level of the population and the individual. We can learn from the history of past economic crises in terms of the following: changes in patterns of health risk; differential impact of economic crisis on the health of more vulnerable social groups; changes in demand for health services, and thus formulate appropriate policy responses and strategies to mitigate the negative impact on health.