ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses how health research has influenced the development of welfare state regime typologies, and how these typologies have themselves influenced health research. It examines three key developments: the integration of healthcare services into the welfare state typologies literature; the importance of decommodification with regard to health and healthcare; and how welfare state regimes have been used by comparative social epidemiologists to examine and explain international differences in population health and health inequalities. Healthcare is an important social determinant of health and a significant component of a country's welfare state accounting for an average of 9 per cent of gross domestic product in Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Welfare states, through their decommodifying effects, moderate the extent, and impact, of market-derived class and income inequalities within a country. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the implications of health research for the further development of welfare state regime typologies and comparative social policy.