In Pursuit of Health Equity: Comparing U.S. and EU Approaches to Eliminating Disparities

Abstract

Researchers compare and contrast the U.S. public policy approach to tackling the problem of health disparities with the European approach in this paper. They begin by providing an overview of the ways in which the issue of health disparities has been framed in American and European policy discourse. They next compare how health disparities have been addressed in policy statements produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and by the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, emphasizing the US emphasis and race and ethnicity and the European orientation to economic status.