The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change
By Ole Petter Ottersen and 23 other co-authors
The Lancet鈥擴niversity of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health, The Lancet, February 11, 2014Executive summary
Despite large gains in health over the past few decades, the distribution of health risks worldwide remains extremely and unacceptably uneven. Although the health sector has a crucial role in addressing health inequalities, its efforts often come into conflict with powerful global actors in pursuit of other interests such as protection of national security, safeguarding of sovereignty, or economic goals. This report examines power disparities and dynamics across a range of policy areas that affect health and that require improved global governance: economic crises and austerity measures, knowledge and intellectual property, foreign investment treaties, food security, transnational corporate activity, irregular migration, and violent conflict.
Global health inequities
* 聽About 842 million people worldwide are chronically hungry, one in six children in developing countries is underweight, and more than a third of deaths among children younger than 5 years are attributable to malnutrition. Unequal access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food persists even though global food production is enough to cover 120% of global dietary needs.
* 聽1路5 billion people face threats to their physical integrity, their health being undermined not only by direct bodily harm, but also by extreme psychological stress due to fear, loss, and disintegration of the social fabric in areas of chronic insecurity, occupation, and war.
* 聽Life expectancy differs by 21 years between the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking countries on the human development index. Even in 18 of the 26 countries with the largest reductions in child deaths during the past decade, the difference in mortality is increasing between the least and most deprived quintiles of children.
* 聽More than 80% of the world’s population are not covered by adequate social protection arrangements. At the same time, the number of unemployed workers is soaring. In 2012, global unemployment rose to 197路3 million, 28路4 million higher than in in 2007. Of those who work, 27% (854 million people) attempt to survive on less than US$2 per day. More than 60% of workers in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa earn less than $2 per day.
* Many of the 300 million Indigenous people face discrimination, which hinders them from meeting their daily needs and voicing their claims. Girls and women face barriers to access education and secure employment compared with boys and men, and women worldwide still face inequalities with respect to reproductive and sexual health rights. These barriers diminish their control over their own life circumstances.
Conclusion
The overarching message of the Commission on Global Governance for Health is that grave health inequity is morally unacceptable, and ensuring that transnational activity does not hinder people from attaining their full health potential is a global political responsibility. The deep causes of health inequity are not of a technical character, devoid of conflicting interests and power asymmetries, but tied to fairness and justice rather than biological variance. Health equity should be a cross-sectoral political concern, since the health sector cannot address these challenges alone. A particular responsibility rests with national governments. We urge policy makers across all sectors, as well as international organisations and civil society, to recognise how global political determinants affect health inequities, and to launch a global public debate about how they can be addressed. Health is a precondition, outcome, and indicator of a sustainable society, and should be adopted as a universal value and a shared social and political objective for all.
http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/global-governance-for-health
The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change (38 pages):http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673613624071.pdf
In reviewing the enormity of the global health inequities and the problems that perpetuate them, our compromised status in the United States seems to be minuscule in comparison. Yet when you think of the difficulties that we do have with addressing our own health inequities, it is mind-boggling to contemplate the international scene.
In a related Lancet article, Professor Ole Petter Ottersen is noted to be at pains to point out that this is far from “a doom and gloom report.” Yet they conclude, “Health equity should be a cross-sectoral political concern, since the health sector cannot address these challenges alone. A particular responsibility rests with national governments.”
Judging from the difficulties that we have had with merely tweaking some of our injustices without addressing effectively the major problems, it is difficult to see how nations will be able to work together in making real progress in improving the health of all – but we have to try.
As this is being written, Prof. Ottersen, in closing remarks in a live webcast from the University of Oslo at which this report was presented, reemphasized that that the improvement in global health will require the involvement of national political systems. And we thought single payer was tough.