A note on HYE (healthy years equivalent)

This note presents a simplified description of the Healthy Years Equivalent (HYE) health outcome measure. I examine the claims made for the HYE and discuss their theoretical validity. The HYE is shown to be conceptually flawed because of confusions between the measures of value and the things being valued. Under close inspection the unnecessarily complicated multiple stage valuation used to determine the HYE is seen to be no more than an indirect way of asking the Time Trade-Off. For this reason the claimed superiority of the method over the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) is rejected.