Health outcomes differ markedly both between countries and between more affluent and more deprived areas within a country. Increasingly, such differences are seen as unjust and there is a strengthening political will to address the inequalities. In the UK, for example, health inequalities currently rank high on the political and National Health Service (NHS) agendas. The Labour government, in what will be an election year, continues to emphasise its commitment to reducing differences in health outcomes and eliminating 'postcode' variations in prescribing and healthcare services. And a recent report by Adam Oliver, a health economist at the Office of Health Economics in London and chair of the UK Health Equity Network, suggests that health economics can help inform the debate surrounding health inequalities as well as aid in formulating strategies to reduce variations.