[Economic evaluation and rationing: is age an adequate criteria?]

Old age is one of the criteria used for priority setting in a context of limited resources and of health care rationing. Rationing on age is supported by the various types of economic analysis. However, economic evaluations have methodological limitations and sometime lead to conclusions that compromise the efficiency objective. In addition, an utilitarist approach is criticized for neglecting the equity objective of the health care system. Age is an imperfect reflect of health status and prognosis at an individual level, which remain difficult to translate into an easily defined criterion for rationing purposes.