Reducing health inequality

About the book

Large inequalities in health between social groups remain one of the most pressing challenges for public policy. Reducing these inequalities is a widely shared public goal, resonating across political ideologies and social divides. Yet policies that aim to narrow health gaps can sometimes conflict with other important objectives, such as improving overall population health or prioritising effective care for people with severe diseases. How should decision makers balance these competing priorities?

Reducing Health Inequality asks what it would take to move from describing health inequality to reducing it. Drawing together ideas from ethics, economics, epidemiology and sociology, it offers a practical framework for navigating fairness trade-offs in societies where people hold different ethical views. It also introduces new kinds of equity-informative evidence now starting to inform public decision making, notably distributional cost-effectiveness analysis and health equity performance indicators.

The book argues that the health inequality impacts of public decisions can and should be routinely calculated, compared and considered, that doing so changes which policies look worthwhile, and that new data and analytical methods now offer a game-changing opportunity to make health equity count in decision making.

Written for a practically minded interdisciplinary audience, it will interest policy makers and their advisers, as well as students, researchers and professionals in public health, medicine, economics and ethics, and will be useful for graduate courses in health policy and public health.

Oxford University Press, February 2027 / Population-Level Bioethics series / Hardback and paperback

Spring 2027

York book launch

Centre for Health Economics (CHE), University of York. Details and registration to follow.

Wednesday 19 May 2027

London School of Economics

Book lecture and panel discussion, part of LSE Health's 30th anniversary celebrations. Old Theatre, LSE. Chaired by Miqdad Asaria, with discussants Alex Voorhoeve and Julian Le Grand; further panellists to be announced. Details and registration to follow.

2027

Harvard University

US launch event. Details to follow.

Richard Cookson is a Professor at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, and a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore.

He is recognised internationally for his work on developing methods for analysing the impacts of public policy on social inequality in health, including distributional cost-effectiveness analysis, health equity indicators for quality improvement, and life-course modelling of childhood policy consequences.

Richard has worked in the UK Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and served on various National Health Service advisory committees, including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence committees for health technology appraisal and public health, and the advisory committee on resource allocation. He has also advised international organisations and national health agencies on methods for analysing and reducing social inequality in health.

Staff profile