Gestor bibliográfico Crisis y Salud

Stuckler and Basu et al.1 provide a well-reasoned analysis of the nature of public debt that is currently the dominant theme in national and global economic policy debates, the options available to governments in responding to it and, depending upon that response, its potential impact on population health. They provide a credible rationale for being concerned but not panicked at the magnitude of UK public debt and equally persuasive arguments for how it could and should be managed down without putting public health at unnecessary risk. However, on the whole this reasoned analysis has not been reflected in the public discourse, where much of the popular press and other commentary have seemed concerned to raise public alarm at the size of the public debt and to emphasizs the importance of taking rapid and sever fiscal tightening measures to reduce it as quickly as possible without precipitating a double-dip recession. In the recent UK national elections, all parties have agreed about the importance of achieving an ever more efficient public sector (and who could argue with that?) but they have also warned of the inevitability of large cuts in public spending (while promising protection for 'front line' services); a response that the authors warn could have profound consequences for public health for many years.