Health prioritization: the case of Chile

This paper examines the introduction of a prioritized list of fifty-six health conditions in Chile, for which access to treatment is guaranteed. This is an important health reform issue, and the discussion of Chile's rich and complex approach may benefit other countries. Conditions on the list were selected using multiple criteria: burden of disease, inequality, high costs, social preferences, rule of rescue, and cost-effectiveness. The dominant criteria were high burden of disease and social preferences. Cost-effectiveness was introduced after the fact to identify effective treatments at a cost that the country could afford.