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Health insurance expansions can improve health outcomes by increasing access to healthcare. This is especially true among the poorer segments of the population, who may not be able to afford the cost of healthcare, or might lack the information about where to seek proper medical care. In this paper we examine whether increased access to health insurance has historically reduced height inequality by promoting body growth, particularly among poor individuals, and so enhanced their height, a widely used and well-established anthropometric health and well-being indicator. We draw on data from a large global panel of countries for which we could measure height inequality. Our evidence documents that indeed within-country differences in height inequality decreased following health insurance expansions towards near-universal coverage. • First study: health insurance reduces height and health inequality. • Large global sample over 200 years. • "Big picture" of health inequality in the long run. • Instrumental variable techniques suggest causal relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strongest economic crisis ever known, started in 2008, destroyed much of the social achievements. Although the European Union had to deal with this situation by designing common policies, the member states have handled this crisis in many different ways. Nevertheless, not all the countries had the same possibilities for manage their economic policies inside a common currency area. These states involved in the EuroZone have faced some restrictions due to their belonging to a currency area, so they have had to design alternative economic policies to the monetary one. The main objective of this paper is to assess the acceptance of the restrictive policies on public health expenses due to economic crisis and the implemented economic policy, from the point of view of citizens. This paper hypothesized that this acceptance or not depends on citizens perception of adequate use of the public health care system. A survey was conducted among the main social actors involved on healthcare system: the general population and health professionals. And for testing the hypotheses a means comparison ( t -test and ANOVA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been developed using data from that survey. Outcomes from those econometric exercises show a general disagreement with the cuts in health expenses, but in a level very related with citizen’s perceptions of overuse of public health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]