Putting healthcare on the spot

Does healthcare help everyone equally? A study from Finland examines socioeconomic equity in amenable mortality (premature deaths that should not occur if effective healthcare is provided).  Researchers, who analysed data from 1992 to 2008, found that the decreasing trend in amenable mortality was notably slower in low income groups.  When comparing the effectiveness of specialist and primary care in reducing inequalities, it was clear that inequities were larger and increased faster in deaths amenable to specialist care, although "primary health care interventions made a greater contribution to overall inequity."  Another study examined mortality data from 14 European countries, assessing whether socioeconomic inequalities in amenable mortality reflected access to or quality of healthcare (neither, was the verdict).  A paper in the European Journal of Health Economics does the math, comparing avoidable mortality with healthcare spending in 14 western countries between 1996 and 2006.