Throughout a comparative analysis of the association between SES and health in three European welfare clusters, this study examines the roles of education, income, and wealth on changes in self-reported health among people aged 65 years or more. I used panel data (25,136 observations from 16,391 respondents) from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) between the years 2004-2013 from ten European countries. Estimating random effects logistic models on the risks of self-reporting poor health – separately for each gender and welfare cluster – I show that SES still matter for older individuals’ general health. I find that all indicators of SES are significantly associated with differences in self-reported health over the follow-up period, even after controlling for a wide array of “objective” health variables, behavioural risk factors, healthcare utilization and family composition. However, these relationships depend on the institutional context, the gender, and the life course phase of the subject, lending support to the hypothesis that Northern European countries are more protective for the health of the elderly, especially for women. Findings suggest that these inequalities in health might be reduced by improving educational opportunities, income distribution, or access to health care.