PHM-Exch> Budget crises, health, and social welfare programmes

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at paho.org>
crossposted from: EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org


 *Budget crises, health, and social welfare programmes

*

*BMJ 2010; 340:c3311 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c3311 (Published 24 June 2010) *

BMJ 2010; 340:c3311

 David Stuckler, researcher 12, Sanjay Basu, physician3, Martin McKee,
professor of European public health4

1 Department of Sociology, Oxford University, Oxford

2 Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, London UK

3 Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco and
Division of General Internal Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital

4 European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition, London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 Available at: http://bit.ly/ddkipc

 “…..Governments may feel they are protecting health by safeguarding
healthcare budgets, the authors argue that social welfare spending is as
important, if not more so, for population health



The recession of 2008 has had profound economic consequences for many
countries. How and when to reduce budget deficits was a major focus in the
recent general election in the United Kingdom and continues to make
headlines around the world. The new government has already begun to make
large cuts in public expenditure,1 2 even though the UK’s projected
underlying debt, as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), is less than
that of other industrialised countries, it has longer than many other
countries before it is required to refinance loans (table 1⇓), and the
actual deficit in 2009-10 was considerably less than expected.

 Leading economists have widely divergent views about whether the cuts will
aid or hinder economic recovery,3 4 but have paid scant attention to the
potential effects of reductions in health and social expenditure on
population health.5 We examine historical data for insights into how lower
levels of public spending might affect health…..”
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