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Axioms for health care resource allocation
1Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Studiestraede 6, DK-1455 Copenhagen K, Denmark. lars.p.osterdal@econ.ku.dk
Journal of Health Economics
|June 18, 2005
Summary
This study explores health care resource allocation using axioms for individual preferences and distributive justice. It develops a social welfare function based on quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to guide fair resource distribution.
Area of Science:
- Health economics
- Decision theory
- Public health policy
Background:
- Resource allocation in healthcare is complex, requiring ethical frameworks.
- Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) are a common metric for health outcomes.
- Distributive justice principles are crucial for equitable healthcare access.
Observation:
- Axioms are defined to represent individual preferences using QALYs.
- The existence of a social welfare function solely dependent on QALYs is established.
- Properties of social welfare functions are explored based on fairness axioms.
Findings:
- A symmetric Cobb-Douglas social welfare function is characterized by anonymity across life years.
- Replacing anonymity with non-age dependence yields a weighted utilitarian social welfare function.
- Axioms are provided for social welfare functions as weighted sums of power transformations of QALYs.
Implications:
- Provides a theoretical foundation for equitable healthcare resource allocation.
- Offers tools for designing health policies that align with justice principles.
- Contributes to the ongoing debate on measuring and valuing health outcomes.