BACKGROUND Most of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) aim to ensure equitable access to health care. This is often interpreted as requiring that care be available on the basis of need and not willingness or ability to pay. We sought to examine equity in physician utilization in 21 OECD countries for the year 2000. METHODS Using data from n...

BACKGROUND AND METHODS Monitoring use-inequity is important to measure progress in efforts to address health-inequities. Using data from six Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS), we examine trends, inequities and socio-demographic determinants of use of maternal health care services in Bangladesh between 1991 and 2011. FINDINGS Access to maternal health care services has improved ...

This paper is the first to apply prospect theory to societal health-related decision making. In particular, we allow for utility curvature, equity weighting, sign-dependence, and loss aversion in choices concerning quality of life of other people. We find substantial inequity aversion, both for gains and losses, which can be attributed to both diminishing marginal utility and differential weigh...

BACKGROUND Brazil has made progress towards a more equitable distribution of health care, but gains may be threatened by economic instability resulting from the 2008 global financial crisis. This study measured predictors of health care utilization and changes in horizontal inequity between 2008 and 2013. METHOD Data were from two nationally representative surveys that measured a variety of s...

The deaf population has traditionally been marginalized and underserved when it comes to mental health services. The inequity is partly due to a general lack of knowledge about hearing loss and a shortage of linguistically and culturally qualified clinicians in most parts of the United States. Providing access to qualified clinicians via video conferencing technology has been proposed as a poss...

BACKGROUND Equity is the core of primary care. The issue of equity in health has become urgent, and China has attached increasing attention to it. With rapid economic development and great changes in medical insurance policy, the pattern of equity in health has changed tremendously. The reform of healthcare in Zhejiang Province is at the forefront in China, and studies on Zhejiang Province are ...

The Ghanaian National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced to provide access to adequate health care regardless of ability to pay. By law the NHIS is mandatory but because the informal sector has to make premium payment before they are enrolled, the authorities are unable to enforce mandatory nature of the scheme. The ultimate goal of the Scheme then is to provide all residents with ac...

The persistence of inequities in health, with poor and other disadvantaged population groups bearing a disproportionately high burden of ill-health, remains a public health, ethical and human rights challenge.1 The WHO Constitution enshrines equity thus: “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race,...

In this article, the author explores how gender inequity is manifested in poor reproductive and mental health outcomes, including unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, maternal mortality, sexually transmitted infections, depression, and psychosomatic symptoms. Briefly described is a landmark 1994 United Nations conference emphasizing that gender inequity adversely affects women's reproductive he...