News item | 13-12-2024 | 2:45 PM
Improving the health of everyone and in particular that of people in a vulnerable situation and reducing health inequalities. That is the aim of the policy agenda ‘Health in all policy areas’ adopted by the cabinet. The policy agenda is a government response to the advice ‘Growing up healthily, living and working’ that the Social-Economic Council (SER) issued in December 2023.
State Secretary Karremans: “Health disadvantages among vulnerable groups are largely related to other social disadvantages that often reinforce each other, such as poverty, debt, an insecure work situation and an unhealthy living environment. The causes and therefore the solutions to health problems lie largely outside healthcare. That is why the government’s policy agenda, in addition to healthcare, also focuses on good working conditions and people living in a healthy environment. In the coming period we will be consulting with various parties to work on a more fundamental approach and focus for the long term.”
Government-wide health approach
This policy agenda presents the first steps of a government-wide ‘Health in all policy areas’ approach. We implement this along three lines. The first line focuses on the policy themes that have the most impact on health inequalities, in accordance with the advice of the SER. This concerns, among other things, work and social security, a healthy generation, a healthy environment in which to live and prevention. The second line explores possibilities to better include health in overall government policy. The third and final line focuses on providing a clearer picture of the costs and benefits of health.
Promote health
It has been agreed in the Government Program that this cabinet will make agreements on how policy in other areas can promote health. With this policy agenda, the government is providing an initial interpretation of this. The letter is also a response to the SER advice ‘Growing up healthily, living and working’, in which the SER advises that policy should be focused primarily on removing social causes of health risks and on improving the health of everyone, with extra attention for people in a vulnerable position.