Getting Better

The Policy and Politics of Reducing Health Inequalities

Katherine E Smith author Julia Lynch author Clare Bambra author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bristol University Press

Publishing:27th May '25

£14.99

This title is due to be published on 27th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Getting Better cover

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Health inequality has reached a crisis point. Your income or hometown can have a devastating impact on how well and how long you live. This injustice, exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, continues as the cost of living rises and other sources of inequity grow. What can be done to make things better?

This book, written by the authors behind the award-winning The Unequal Pandemic, explores successful international case studies of governments reducing health inequalities – from the USA and Brazil to Germany and England – stretching over fifty years from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Essential reading for students and scholars of public health and the social sciences, and for health and social care professionals and policy makers, this book demonstrates that reducing health inequalities is possible and provides a roadmap for today’s governments to follow.

“Recognition that the key determinants of health inequalities lie in the realm of politics and macroeconomics can foster world-weariness, even despair – what to do? This book is an evidence-based counter to despair. It shows, using four case studies, that health inequalities have been reduced by political and social policies. The key message is to continue these life-enhancing policies.” Sir Michael Marmot, UCL Institute of Health Equity
“As surely as movements and governments that foster economic, social and participatory democracy reduce health inequities, neoliberal and reactionary regimes increase them. This timely must-read book, examining the US, Brazil, Germany and England, explains why.” Nancy Krieger, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
“Economic disadvantage is the cause of countless deaths worldwide. Getting Better reminds us that it is political decisions that allow this to happen. But this also means that change is possible if the political will is there.” Nico Dragano, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

ISBN: 9781447372868

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

208 pages