Theorizing, empiricizing, and analyzing health care utilization in Germany: An introduction

Abstract

Given decades of socio-epidemiological research, the social gradients in healthrelated quality of life, morbidity, and mortality that favor higher social status groups and disadvantage lower social status groups are factually a truism. This holds true for Germany and Europe in general as well as for other industrialized countries such as the USA or Canada. In Germany, for instance, differences in life expectancy between the highest and lowest income groups range up to 10 years. Against this background, a crucial scientific and political question is whether the health care system increases or decreases this gap. Initial research findings in Germany indicate that the gap might be influenced more by differences in utilization than in supply.