May 5, 2023
Dr. Simone Schneider presented findings from her recently published paper, co-authored with Ellen Immergut (European University Institute) in Social Science and Medicine, which laid the foundation for the PERGAP project. The talk, titled Is it unfair for the affluent to be able to purchase “better” healthcare? Existential standards and institutional norms in healthcare attitudes across 28 countries, was delivered at the workshop of the Cohesion in Europe – Perceptions and Fields of Action (PerzepEU) project, hosted by the Hertie School and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The paper revealed four key insights:
(1) Countries with higher cost barriers to healthcare tend to show lower levels of perceived unfairness.
(2) Greater public financing for healthcare correlates with higher perceptions of healthcare.
(3) Public financing has a stronger impact on the fairness perceptions of lower-income groups.
(4) These findings suggest that institutional norms promoting equal healthcare rights may influence public attitudes.
Simone’s presentation was part of the session on Social Cohesion and Inequality, which featured contributions from distinguished scholars such as Patrick Sachweh (University of Bremen), Sebastian Kohl (Free University Berlin), and Licia Bobzien (Hertie School). The session stimulated critical discussions on the role of public institutions in shaping perceptions, preferences, and distributional justice – central themes of the PERGAP project.
Special thanks go to Prof. Anke Hassel for her invitation and for being an outstanding host.
Learn more about the PerzepEU project here: