Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

44 3. Economic Inequality, Development and Global Health Andrés Solimano Ratinof f 4 The social and economic situation of countries is directly related, among other factors, to the health status of their population (Hertzman, 2001), even before birth (Barker, 1995). This relationship is widely documented in literature. The perspective of Public Health and Global Health predicts that more “developed” countries (those with higher per capita income levels and more advanced institutional frameworks) generally show much better health indicators than their counterparts with fewer resources (Haring, 2021). One explanation is that a higher level of income allows for more resources to be allocated to prevention and disease treatment in the health sector, which improves people’s health outcomes. In general, there is a positive correlation between health and nutrition indices and per capita income, although this relationship is not linear. Income inequality within countries also reflects differential access to health services and quality of healthcare based on income, with wealthier middle-class sectors and high-income individuals obtaining better healthcare services than lower-income and poorer sectors. Various mechanisms exist that mediate this relationship (health levels and the economic development of nations) at the population level. At conceptual level we have theories of allocation of public resources to the health sector, household decision-making regarding health spending, the availability of fiscal resources connected to the tax system structure and the overall development levels of countries. Complementary approaches include the theory of the construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1966), the unintended consequences of actions considered beneficial (Merton, 1936), theories oriented towards the construction of health in the world, such as governance and biopower theories (Foucault, 2004) and the theory of suffering (Kleinman et al., 1997) and economic aspects of health determinants, the concept of commercial determinants of health (Kickbusch, 2012), which help us to better understand the relationship between economy and health 5 . This article examines broad economic and social considerations in the relationship between economic development and health for Chile and the Latin American region from a historical perspective. A mostly economic approach including an analysis of income and wealth inequality is used as background for the understanding of Global Health issues addressed in this book. 4 Founder and President, International Center for Globalization and Development, CIGLOB. 5 See Haring, R. (2021).