Unmet Need For Health Care – A Serious Issue for European Elderly?

Unmet need is found as an undesirable feature of health care systems. The paper analyses unmet health care need among European elderly. The data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe is used. The methods of descriptive analyses are applied. Results showed that access to health care is not equal; unmet need exists and is serious in Estonia and Italy especially. The elderly with unmet need have worse health and suffer from a higher number of chronic diseases. They face higher health care burden. The most vulnerable are older elderly with a low income.