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Relatively high levels of intranational equity in health care, and in health status, among socioeconomic and cultural groups has been a signal achievement of most EU member nations. This has been accomplished through the use of models of health care financing and delivery which incorporate high levels of public sector involvement. With the entry of the former communist-party states of East-Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) into the EU, a dramatic new element of inter- and intranational inequality will be introduced. Most of the new member states exhibit rapidly increasing intranational inequalities in health status, due in part to their move away from precisely the kinds of structural arrangements for health care financing and delivery that have served most current EU member states so well. It is likely that intergroup and interlocational inequalities within countries in health statuses will represent the most significant element of societal inequity in the EU by 2010. Yet the formal conditions for EU accession give little attention to this issue. This paper contrasts trends in population health, and in the financing and delivery of health care, in existing EU member states as compared with the ECEE countries next in accession. These themes then are elaborated through a closer look at the Hungarian case, using a comprehensive set of health and policy measures for the 20 principal subnational units for the period 1989-2000. The concluding section of the paper considers the implications of this neglect of health-related issues in relation to EU membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]