This report was prepared by a team of the Health Division in the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. Agnès Couffinhal led the project on social inequalities in health and health systems and co-ordinated the preparation and publication of this report, supported by Michael Mueller. They worked extensively on and co-authored all chapters. Chapter 1 was written by Agnès Couffinhal, Michael Mueller, Caroline Berchet and Marion Devaux. Caroline Berchet led the preparation of Chapter 2, Marion Devaux that of Chapters 3 and 4. Viviane Azais and Eileen Rocard carried out most of the statistical work underpinning the analysis of Chapters 2 to 4 and also co-authored these chapters. Chapter 5 was led by Michael Mueller and also co-authored by Sarah Thomson on behalf of the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening. Ane Auraaen, Fréderic Daniel, Michael Gmeinder and Karolina Socha-Dietrich contributed to the analysis described in different sections of the report. Gaétan Lafortune and Chris James helped shape the overall direction of the report and Francesca Colombo provided comments and advice throughout the project.
Within the OECD Health Division, authors would like to thank Ian Brownwood, Yeveniy Goryakin, Thomas Rapp and Frederico Guanais for comments and suggestions pertaining to the scope of the analysis and methodological issues, as well as Mark Pearson and Stefano Scarpetta for their guidance. Lukasz Lech, Duniya Dedeyn, Lucy Hulett and Guillaume Haquin provided vital support in the publication process and in the administration of the project.
The authors would like to thank delegates of the OECD Health Committee for providing valuable comments. They also want to thank experts from the European Commission and the Indicators’ Sub-Group of the Social Protection Committee for valuable feedback provided. Thanks also go to Owen O’Donnell, Associate Professor in the Erasmus School of Economics, for his advice on technical issues.
The analyses presented in this publication are based on data from a range of national health surveys:
The Canadian Community Health Survey 2015-16, managed by Statistics Canada.
The Chilean National Socio-Economic Characterization Survey (CASEN) 2017, managed by Ministry of Social Development of Chile.
The European Health Interview Survey 2014 (EHIS-2) provided by Eurostat. The authors are grateful to Lucian Agafitei for his patience answering questions and to Dr Kathleen England and the team in Malta for providing access to the data.
The German Survey “Gesundheit in Deutschland aktuell” (GEDA) 2014, managed by the Robert Koch-Institute.
The US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2016, managed by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The responsibility for all conclusions drawn from the data lies entirely with the authors.
This document was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” (2014-2020). The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD member countries or the European Union.