Measurement of Inequity in the Delivery of Public Health Care: Evidence from Spain (1997)

Abstract

This paper assesses horizontal equity in the delivery of public health care in Spain, and tries to identify those health care levels and population groups where inequality is concentrated. Different kinds of health care are analysed for 1997, both at disaggregate and aggregate level. The results show that the socio-economic population groups affected by inequity vary according to the specific health care level studied although, in global terms, there is not a clearly significant degree of inequity. The Spanish results are also compared to those obtained for other European countries.