Tim Worstall

WHO is the mandated leader in global health. It is time to enhance WHO’s leadership role through the agenda for action on the social determinants of health and global health equity. A report from WHO says that WHO is very important, oh yes indeed. Bit of a surprise to see that in there, isn’t it?

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Global governance mechanisms – such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – are required with increasing urgency as market integration expands and accelerates circulation of and access to health-damaging commodities. Processed foods and alcohol are two prime candidates for stronger global, regional, and national regulatory controls. Global prohibition of alcohol and trans fats. In [...]

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Health is not a tradable commodity. It is a matter of rights and a public sector duty. As such, resources for health must be equitable and universal. There are three linked issues. First, experience shows that commercialization of vital social goods such as education and health care produces health inequity. Provision of such vital social [...]

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Donors should consider channelling most of their aid through a single multilateral mechanism, Jobs for the boys on the international gravy train!

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Aid is important. While the evidence suggests that it can and does promote economic growth, and can contribute more directly to better health, the view of the Commission is that aid’s primary value is as a mechanism for the reasonable distribution of resources in the common endeavour of social development. It doesn’t matter what aid [...]

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This in turn implies progressive taxation – evidence shows that modest levels of redistribution have considerably greater impact on poverty reduction than economic growth alone. It does? Two hugely redistributionist countries, North Korea and Cuba (and their now failed Soviet counterparts) have reduced poverty more than the US, UK or Hong Kong? Really?

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For example, trade policy that actively encourages the unfettered production, trade, and consumption of foods high in fats and sugars to the detriment of fruit and vegetable production is contradictory to health policy, So, you’re not going to be allowed to import chocolate any more. In the name of equity, of course.

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Act to redress the health brain drain, focusing on investment in increased health human resources and training and bilateral agreements to regulate gains and losses. That looks very much like global controls on the migration of nurses. That Phillippina cannot move to the US unless an American nurse is willing to move to Manila perhaps? [...]

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The Commission considers health care a common good, not a market commodity……In particular, it is vital to minimize out-of-pocket spending on health care. Right, so, that’s the French system fucked then. Pity really, because WHO itself says it’s the best system in the world.

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Bottom of page seven of the executive summary. Comparing generosity of welfare systems with number in poverty (measured as below 50% of median equivalised disposable income.) The US is in the top left (low transfers, high poverty rate), the Nordics bottom right (yay! social democracy!). What they don’t tell us is the findning from Smeeding: [...]

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Provide quality work for men and women with a living wage that takes into account the real and current cost of healthy living. Now the solution to health inequality is a living wage campaign? "Quality work"? Have these people been taking too many bong hits with the sociology crowd? Just by whom and how are [...]

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Ensure urban planning promotes healthy and safe behaviours equitably, through investment in active transport, retail planning to manage access to unhealthy foods, and through good environmental design and regulatory controls, including control of the number of alcohol outlets. "manage access to unhealthy foods"? Seriously? No planning permission for your shop if you sell transfats? They’re [...]

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At present, greenhouse gas emissions are determined mainly by consumption patterns in cities of the developed world. Transport and buildings contribute 21% to CO2 emissions (IPCC, 2007), agricultural activity accounts for about one fifth. Marvellous. Transport and buildings are 21%, agriculture is 20%. The former is "mainly", the latter is not?

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Provide quality compulsory primary and secondary education for all boys and girls, regardless of ability to pay. Identify and address the barriers to girls and boys enrolling and staying in school and abolish user fees for primary school. In order to make the population healthier it will be necessary to ban private primary schools?

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In order to address health inequities, and inequitable conditions of daily living, it is necessary to address inequities – such as those between men and women – in the way society is organized. This requires a strong public sector that is committed, capable, and adequately financed. To achieve that requires more than strengthened government – [...]

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Well, they certainly lay out their priorities early on. The Commission takes a holistic view of social determinants of health. The poor health of the poor, the social gradient in health within countries, and the marked health inequities between countries are caused by the unequal distribution of power, income, goods, and services, globally and nationally, [...]

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Other options, including a stamp duty holiday, are being held back for further consideration. Christ on a bike….don’t these morons understand that uncertainty about the legal and tax environment is what cripples markets? It doesn’t matter what decision you take about stamp duty. Abolish it, double it, leave it as it is. But take the [...]

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You know, there might just be a political motive here….you never know, eh? For it is indeed the WHO which compiles the statistics on the different health systems around the world. The statistics which place far greater weight upon equity of access and financing than upon anything so crude as the efficiency of said services [...]

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Yes, health inequality is high. However, however…. This government can argue that is tackling all of the above. It can be proud of the progress made in improving overall health to the extent that life expectancy for the poorest has reached the average of just eight years ago. Absolute health is improving. If we believe [...]

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Organic food is such an easy target at times like this. It is often more expensive, in terms of the pound in your purse, in the industrialised world. But it is not so in developing nations, where organic-based techniques of soil care, crop rotation and natural fertility-building are often the most effective, safe, productive and [...]

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