What is the difference between health equity and health equality?

• A. Equity is the same as equality in all cases.
• B. Equity refers to fairness in health outcomes given different needs; equality means identical distributions regardless of need.
• C. Equity means everyone has equal resources regardless of need.
• D. Equality means outcomes are tailored to individual circumstances.

Answer: (B)

Health equity focuses on fairness in health outcomes by accounting for different needs and barriers people face. Equality, on the other hand, means giving everyone the same resources or opportunities, regardless of those differences. Because people have varying levels of disadvantage, simply distributing identical resources won’t produce the same health results for everyone. For example, providing the same number of health services to all may leave those facing greater barriers with poorer outcomes; equity would provide additional support to those groups to help achieve comparable health results.

So the idea is that equity is about fairness in outcomes given differing needs, while equality is about identical distributions regardless of need. The other statements mix up the concepts by saying equity is the same as equality, or that equity means equal resources, or that equality means tailored outcomes—none of which align with how these terms are defined in health policy.