Challenges, consequences, and possible paths for confronting post-COVID-19 health inequalities and vulnerabilities

Abstract

The article aims to discuss the challenges and consequences of health inequalities and vulnerabilities, focusing on current phenomena that have reshaped such context, namely financial crisis, fiscal austerity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences between levels of access to wealth and opportunities among and within countries belonging to different income groups create and perpetuate social inequalities that frequently become health inequities. It is challenging to understand both the recent changes and the persistence of inequalities and social stratification, and the issue has thus taken on new dimensions that extrapolate studies focused exclusively on income distribution. The financial crisis, fiscal austerity, and the COVID-19 pandemic have aggravated preexisting health inequalities. Thus, the issue of inequalities in health should be an intrinsic part of public policy, with clear and stable standards and objectives based on explicit political agreements and a legal framework with sustainability ensured by an adequate financing policy. Only then will it be possible to achieve greater levels of equity, even in the face of dramatic situations such the one now faced by the world.