Health inequalities and the welfare state in European families

Using EU-Silc data from 2005, our aim in this article is to estimate how self-assessed health and the gradient between education and health vary among individuals in different European countries, considering their contextual socioeconomic vulnerability. In order to do this, we use a hierarchical model with individuals nested in households at the second level, and in various European countries at the third level. Our main research interest is on the modelling variables associated with better health conditions and their improvement or worsening according not only to micro/ individual and macro/national levels but also to the household: a level on which social protection (of whatever nature) exerts its influence. Different household contexts receive different amounts of resources, by transfers, social care and health services, which could directly affect health and also modify the gradient between education and health. Moreover, these relations are likely to change among European countries, on the basis of various welfare assets, as the identification of beneficiaries’ categories and the weight of category-based measures on the overall welfare expenditure varies among countries and among welfare models.