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Priority setting in health care: from arbitrariness to societal values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2012

PHILIPPE BATIFOULIER ,
LOUISE BRADDOCK  and
JOHN LATSIS
PHILIPPE BATIFOULIER*
Affiliation:
EconomiX, University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
LOUISE BRADDOCK*
Affiliation:
Girton College, University of Cambridge, UK
JOHN LATSIS*
Affiliation:
Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK
*
*Email: [email protected]
**Email: [email protected]
***Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

This paper develops an account of the normative basis of priority setting in health care as combining the values which a given society holds for the common good of its members, with the universal provided by a principle of common humanity. We discuss national differences in health basket in Europe and argue that health care decision-making in complex social and moral frameworks is best thought of as anchored in such a principle by drawing on the philosophy of need. We show that health care needs are ethically ‘thick’ needs whose psychological and social construction can best be understood in terms of David Wiggins's notion of vital need: a person's need is vital when failure to meet it leads to their harm and suffering. The moral dimension of priority setting which operates across different societies’ health care systems is located in the demands both of and on any society to avoid harm to its members.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 61 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2012

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