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CosThe methodological contribution of this paper is to introducesome developments in the literature on poverty and deprivationto the analysis of inequality and inequity in health care. The HCDprofiles define deprivation in health care as receiving less care thanneeded. A common interpretation of equity in health care is thatresources have to be allocated with respect to individuals’ needsrather than individuals’ preferences. Thus, if some minorities inthe population have inadequate use with respect to their need, thisis generally regarded as an issue of social justice. In this context,the definition and measurement of need for health care assumesa crucial role. We have proposed a function of the average utilizationobserved in the total population as need estimator, followingthe tradition of the literature on health care inequality. In turn,this has led us to determine a link between horizontal equity anddeprivation allowing us to interpret the HCD approach in termsof horizontal equity, i.e. equal use for equal need. In this case, theequity principle embodied by the HCD approach is that an individualperson or group of people should not receive less health carethan the average individual with the same level of need. However,alternative definitions of need can be specified, and thus alternativeviews of equity can be incorporated within the HCD profileapproach. For instance, h* can be exogenously set by a policy makeras the minimum or target amount of health care that individuals orcommunities should receive given their need. This would extendthe approach to take into account vertical as well as horizontalaspects of equity, requiring appropriately different levels of utilizationfor different levels of need as well as equal use for equal need
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