Decision makers' views on health care objectives and budget constraints: results from a pilot study

Economic evaluations aim to inform policy makers about the costs and effects of medical interventions to support their decisions on the allocation of health care resources. Decision makers combine information on cost-effectiveness with their preferences and with possible constraints for the allocation of health care resources. That is, decision makers need to specify an optimality criterion and all possible (budget) constraints. Usually this is a more or less implicit process. The aim of our pilot study was to find out whether decision makers consider the objectives and budget constraints we selected for a theoretical model of resource allocation relevant, and to set priorities for these objectives.