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Rawlsian Justice and the Financing of the National Health Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Claudine McCreadie
Claudine McCreadie
Affiliation:
Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Studies in Social Policy.
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Abstract

John Rawls' A Theory of Justice was published in Britain in 1972. The summation of many years' work by Professor Rawls, it has stimulated widespread admiration and criticism. In this article Rawls' theory is summarized briefly together with some of the major criticisms that have been made of it. An attempt is then made to apply one of Rawls' principles of justice to the question of health services financing, using as a case study the recommendations of an advisory panel of the British Medical Association, which reported in 1970. These recommendations involved extending the private sector in medical care, on the argument that the flow of resources to the National Health Service would increase and, despite possible greater inequalities, result in an improvement in the level of care for all. Judged by the Rawlsian principle, these recommendations are not found likely to represent a just solution to the question of health service financing.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 113 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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