DaCHE discussion papers,
University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics

Abstract: Previous studies of health inequality across European countries have shown intriguing results, in particular for Denmark with high index of income-related inequality in health. Status as retired was found to be the most important determinant of health inequality. We decomposed the inequality index and looked further into the contribution by retired to inequality in health by dividing the retired into two or three age groups. Hypotheses about the factors that constitute the contribution by retired to the overall inequality in health were tested (the share of the population being retired, the health of retired, and the income of retired). We used data from the European Household Panel and SHARE and found that all three factors contribute to the high contribution by retired to the overall inequality index particularly from Denmark. The contribution was most remarkable for the oldest age group among retired, which is explained by the fact that the group of younger retired has better coverage through labour market related pensions in supplement to the universal public pension scheme.

Keywords: Health inequality; retired

JEL-codes: D63; I10

40 pages, June 25, 2010

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