Tackling Health Inequalities (IMO)

Nat O'Connor: I had the opportunity to address the IMO's annual general meeting on Friday 24th April, at a scientific session entitled "Balancing a Strong Economy and an Equitable Society" (click here for my paper and presentation).

The IMO themselves have published a position paper on health inequalities, and as part of the AGM they launched a new paper on Balancing a Strong Economy and an Equitable Society, which is not yet on their website.

Tom Healy (NERI) also gave a paper in this session, on economic growth for a better, fairer society.

The key message is that distribution of income in the economy is deeply linked with health outcomes, and only by addressing inequalities in the economy (through wages, taxes, welfare, services, etc.) can we hope to make the necessary improvements in public health, especially among people who gain least from the current system.

Dr Nat O'Connor     @natpolicy

Dr Nat O’Connor is Assistant Professor of Social Policy at UCD, a fellow of the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy and former Director of TASC. Nat also previously worked at Age Action, the Labour Party, Ulster University and the Homeless Agency. You can find him on LinkedIn (natoconnor) and TwitterX @natpolicy.