[Inequalities in access to care and their evolution: a review]

Tackling health inequalities is one of the main public health goals, and equity of access to care is a necessary condition to achieve this objective. Analyzing and assessing inequalities in health care use is therefore essential in order to enlighten public health policies. This article proposes a review on inequalities in access to care in France and OECD countries, their causes and their evolution. During the last decades, inequalities in health care expenditure have decreased in France with diffusion of complementary insurance, due in particular to the CMU-C implementation in 2000, but they are still significant. The reduction of inequalities is particularly important for GP use, for which we observe now pro-poor inequities. However, there are persistent and important inequalities in access to specialist care, as well as in preventive care. Therefore, France is still one of the European countries with the highest level of inequities in access to care.