Equity in Access to Health Care in Portugal: What Do We Know?

Abstract

In Portugal, constitutional and legal norms stipulate that the healthcare system should be organized to ensure equity in access to healthcare. To guarantee this objective, it is usually assumed that individuals from different socio-economic groups presenting equal levels of need should have access to the same level of care. The present narrative review describes current knowledge on this topic. It provides a brief overview of the characteristics of the Portuguese healthcare system, which may influence the achievement of the objective of equity in health care access. The empirical evidence on this issue is also presented. In Portugal, equity in access has not been achieved for most types of health care. Particularly in the case of specialized health care, better-off groups of the population used more care for a given level of need. The situations where inequity exists should be examined and corrected; potential access barriers within the National Health Service should be considered, as the public healthcare system bears the responsibility for ensuring equity.