Claudia Travassos

This book is about equity in health and health care. It explores why, despite being seen as an important goal, health equity has not made more progress within countries and globally, and what needs to change for there to be greater success in delivering fairness. An international team of eminent experts from primarily the field of health economics describe how equity in health and health care might develop over the next decade. They examine existing and past barriers to promoting equity, citing case examples, and covering issues including access to health services and inequalities between and within countries. The analyses are detailed, but the issues are approached in an accessible fashion, highlighting the factors of common international relevance. This book provides a manifesto for achieving health equity for the future. It will be essential reading for health and social policy makers, and health academics nationally and internationally.

The article analyzes the World Health Organization Report for 2000, with emphasis placed on the methodology used to analyze the indicators utilized to compare and classify the performance of the health systems of the 191 member countries. The Report's contribution was the compromise of monitoring the performance of the health systems of member countries, but because of the inconsistent way it was elaborated, and the utilization of questionable scientific evaluation methodologies, the Report fails to give a clear picture. A criterion-based methodology revision is imposed. The main problems in evidence are the choice of individual indicators of disparity in health that discount the population profile, the inadequate control of the impact of social disparities over the performance of the systems, the evaluation of the responsibility of systems that are only partially articulated to the right of the citizens, the lack of data for a great number of countries, consequently having inconsistent estimations, and the lack of transparency in the methodological procedures in the calculation of some indicators. The article suggests a wide methodological revision of the Report.