From Equitable Access to Health Justice

The article traces the transformation of the understanding of health justice from its identification with the fair distribution of health care to the concept of health justice. The concept of fair access to health care is outlined, indicating the difficulties encountered in implementing this concept in the context of the commodification of health care. The significance of the emergence of the concepts of social determinants of health and the concept of the social gradient in health for the transformation in thinking about health justice is discussed. The theoretical grounding of these concepts in the capabilities approach is indicated, in which health is attributed an intrinsic value and is considered an indispensable component of full human flourishing. The limited nature of the reception of the concepts of social determinants of health and the social gradient in health policy documents is considered. This article was prepared within the project “Healthcare as a public space: integration and social diversity in the context of access to health care in Europe” (HERA.2.029) financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) within the HERA programme Public spaces: culture and integration in Europe, which is co-financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF), the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2018/28/Z/HS1/00554), the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the European Commission from the Horizon 2020 Programme (contract no. 769478).