Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-07-Speech-1-207-000"
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"en.20110307.24.1-207-000"2
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"Mr President, I should like to begin by thanking the shadow rapporteurs for their cooperation and the work that we did together, as well as thanking the rapporteurs for the opinions of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. All the contributions were very useful.
Health inequalities vary from country to country and from region to region. They are linked to economic and social conditions and can be exacerbated because of gender or culture. In other words, health inequalities are not just related to access to healthcare, but also to factors as different as living conditions, housing, education, profession, income and lifestyle. Although there has been some progress, major inequalities within the 27 Member States still persist. For example, according to Eurostat, life expectancy at birth for men varied by 14.2 years between EU Member States in 2007, while among women it was 8.3 years. Health and life expectancy are still linked to social conditions and poverty, and when poverty is combined with other forms of vulnerability, such as childhood or old age, disability or minority background, the risks of health inequalities increase further.
Health inequalities can start during childhood, continue until old age and be passed from generation to generation, hence, the importance of this matter and the urgent need to find a solution. The current situation of global crisis tends to make the situation worse. As is obvious, the crisis is having a severe impact on the health sector in a number of Member States, in terms of both supply and demand. On the supply side, the crisis may lead to a reduction in the level of funding for public health, at the same time as it may lead to increased demand for health services.
The crisis has revealed that the earnings of some have no limits and that this lack of fairness has contributed to increasing the gap between the rich minority and the poor majority. The crisis can therefore also be an opportunity to combat inequalities through bold measures promoting equality. If we do not learn the lesson and if we limit ourselves to changing a few things so that everything stays the same, we will be increasing inequality. As we have been seeing, unequal societies are unstable societies.
Several Member States have included measures to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis on the healthcare sector within their recovery packages by investing in health infrastructure, optimising funding to the healthcare sector, and restructuring and reorganising the healthcare system. It is essential that reducing inequalities be considered a priority at all levels of political action. I therefore welcome the Commission’s proposals.
However, I should like to draw attention to some of my report’s proposals, specifically those aiming to step up the attention given to the needs of people in situations of poverty, disadvantaged migrant groups, including irregular migrants and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, older people and poor children. I advocate measures to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis on the health sector by investing in infrastructure. I consider it essential to guarantee children and pregnant women good health conditions. I also think it is desirable for the Cohesion Fund and Structural Funds to support projects related to factors that contribute to the existence of health inequalities. In other words: we have to build a better, fairer future for later generations."@en1
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