... in international law (Pinch, 1997). Inequalities in health have remained a politically sensitive topic, to the extent that the Thatcher and Major Conservative governments of the 1980s and early 1990s rephrased the phrase 'inequality' with 'variation' when reluctantly discussing the issue (Benzeval, 1997). The election of Blairite New Labour in 1997 has returned the issue of health inequalities to the political limelight. Integral to Bevan's vision of the NHS was the concept of equity of service provision irrespective of income. An equitable health service may be defined as 'one that offers equality of access to health care to individuals in need', although the notions of 'need' and 'access' are themselves problematic (Dixon and Le Grand, 2003). For example, equality of access does not necessarily translate into equality of utilization as this may be mediated by cultural and socio-economic factors (ibid., 2003). In this essay it will be argued that Bevan's ...

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