The Hungarian country profile: inequalities in health and health care in Hungary.

Analysis of occupational, educational, urban/rural and regional data over several decades demonstrate large disparities in the availability of health care and in infant and adult mortality. Life expectancy increased in the immediate post-war period but in the late sixties improvement ceased and life expectancy at age 40 began to fall. Mortality has been particularly high for middle-aged males. Analysis by cause of death suggests the persistence of older poverty-type diseases co-existing with the newer lifestyle diseases. Reasons for system dysfunctioning are discussed--lack of health resources, rigid institutional structures, lack of integrated health policies, failure to adjust the distribution of resources to changing needs etc. The analysis raises the question of how to achieve a balance between equity and efficiency.