Given the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that has deeply affected the health and well-being of people worldwide, the main objective of this paper was to explore the existing relationship between health, welfare, and population aging until the pandemic burst, on the basis of two distinctive groups of European Union (EU) countries, namely, the old and the new member states. The methodological endeavor was based on two advanced econometric techniques, namely, structural equation modelling and network analysis through Gaussian graphical models, applied for each group of EU countries, analyzed during the period of 1995-2017. The main results revealed significant differentiation among the new and old EU countries as follows: public health support was found to have a positive impact on healthy aging and well-being of older people, on other social determinants, and on people's perceived good and very good health; overall, significant influences were revealed in terms of the aging dimensions. The main implications of our findings relate to other researchers as a baseline comparison with the existing situation before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, but also to policymakers that have to rethink the public health allocations, both in old and new EU member states, in order to endorse the aging credentials, underpinning a successful and healthy integration of the elderly within all life dimensions.
Keywords: European Union; aging; econometric modelling; health; well-being.