The disease of disparity: A blueprint to make progress on health inequalities in England

Article

Health inequalities are wide and widening in England.

Today, a child born in the most deprived part of the country can expect to die 10 years before a child born in the least deprived part of the country. They can expect to fall into poor health 20 years sooner – in just their mid-50s – and to live a far greater proportion of their life in poor health. This is unfair and unsustainable – and the scale of health inequality in this country is a key reason it lacked resilience when Covid-19 struck.

This report identifies six areas where policy incentives are misaligned with an ambition to tackle health inequality, and makes recommendations across the NHS and the socioeconomic drivers of poor health.

Combined, these provide a constructive plan to tackle the ‘disease of disparity’ in England – and to achieve the health, social and economic gains possible from addressing health inequality.

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