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How Health Care Can Be Cost-Effective and Fair

Online ISBN:
9780197656990
Print ISBN:
9780197656969
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

How Health Care Can Be Cost-Effective and Fair

Daniel M. Hausman
Daniel M. Hausman
Research Professor, Center for Population-Level Bioethics, Rutgers University
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Published online:
19 January 2023
Published in print:
27 March 2023
Online ISBN:
9780197656990
Print ISBN:
9780197656969
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Health care should be both fair and cost-effective—that is, the health care budget should be used to improve health, well-being, and freedom as much as possible. Although concerns about fair distribution place limits on the use of cost-effectiveness information, this book argues that applications of cost-effectiveness information to guide the allocation of health care resources are not generally unfair. In particular, it responds to criticisms that cost-effectiveness fails to provide individuals whose treatment is less cost-effective with a fair chance of treatment, that it fails to prioritize severity sufficiently, and that it unfairly allows the treatment of minor illnesses to take precedence over the treatment of serious illnesses. However, allocation of health care by cost-effectiveness is unfair when the treatments of disadvantaged individuals are less cost-effective because of those very disadvantages. Although this book defends the use of cost-effectiveness from normative criticisms, it points out serious practical limitations.

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