Health Inequalities
Name Withheld for Peer Grading
University of the People
HS 2712 -- Health Science 2
Marvin Foster
10 September 2022
Introduction
In the previous courses that I have had, such as health psychology and health science 1,
we have learned a lot about health inequalities and the factors that influence them. These are
facts that are not a secret and are visible but nowadays when we have countless more information
available with the help of technology and the Internet, we see how big a global problem it really
is. If I imagined health as a pyramid, illness and premature death would be at the very top as the
final product of all the layers below the top that led to illness and premature death
Factors that affect health inequalities include socio-economic class, which includes income, level
of education, and housing, then gender, which affects lifestyle and length of life, but also its
quality, and ethnicity, which brings with it beliefs and lifestylez. " Inequalities in health have
been measured using many different outcomes including infant deaths, mortality rates, morbidity,
disability, and life expectancy" (Steinbach & Eni-Olotu, 2016., para 2). In this paper, I researched
the health inequalities of Europe, specifically its member Croatia.
Health Inequalities in Europe
There are significant inequalities in the state of public health among EU member states
and population groups within those member states. Social factors such as employment, income.
education, and ethnicity play an important role in contributing to these inequalities, affecting life
expectancy and general health. (Public Health Europe, n.d.)
These significant inequalities in health care are a pressing problem that is being tried to be solved
by the 'Solidarity in Health' strategy because the data collected in the research carried out in 2013
is frightening. One of the data shows that the average lifespan of men with a high level of
education is 50% longer than the lifespan of men with only a basic level of education, by an
average of 17.5 years. The strategy foresees an improvement in the situation and not all news is
bad. One of the positive sides is that looking at the long term, it is predicted that the differences
in life expectancy between the member states will decrease and the inequality in the mortality of
newborns will decrease. (Public Health Europe, n.d.). The above information also applies to
Croatia, which has been a member of the European Union since 2013.
Health inequalities in Croatia
Inequalities in health appear either directly as a direct consequence of the socio-economic
environment, such as poverty, poor nutrition, harmful environment, and risky behavior, or
indirectly, such as insufficient education or unavailability of protection.
In Croatia, health insurance is mandatory for every individual, whether they are employed or
unemployed individuals. Every month, a considerable amount of money is taken from the salary
of employed individuals, one part of which is for health insurance and the other part is for
pension insurance. Unemployed individuals also have health insurance covered by the state,