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Executive summary
Executive summary
Introduction
P
ortugal lies on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula (with also two
archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean), and has a population of 10.3 million
people. Since 1974, the country has had a democratic regimen and has
seen remarkable human, social and economic development, embodied by the
membership of the European Community (1986) and the Euro Zone (1999). As
a result of the 2008 financial crisis, a loan was agreed from the International
Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank
in May 2011. The associated Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) set a
number of measures to be implemented in the health sector in Portugal, aimed
at increasing cost-containment, improving efficiency and increasing regulation.
In 2014, average life expectancy at birth in Portugal was 81.3 years, slightly
higher than the European Union (EU) average that year (80.9 years). However,
estimates of life expectancy are quite different between men and women in
Portugal. According to 2014 figures, Portuguese women are expected to live
6.4 years longer than men, whereas the EU average is 5.5 years.
Health inequalities remain a challenge more generally in Portugal. The
Portuguese population has become concentrated in Lisbon, Oporto and along
the coast, leaving an increasingly sparse and elderly population inland. With
the recent economic crisis, the rates of people leaving Portugal have risen, and
traditional immigration (in particular from former Portuguese African colonies)
has fallen. Portugal remains one of the most unequal countries in the EU, with
the fourth highest Gini coefficient in the EU, and major health differences
between women and men; on average, women live longer than men, but they are
also disproportionately affected by musculoskeletal disorders, depression and
obesity. Combined with similar demographic ageing as elsewhere in Europe,
these inequalities represent a major challenge to both social security and the
health system.