Agnet y Judicialization en Salud en Argentina

Area of Science:

• Health Policy
• Health Economics
• HTA Agencies

Background:

• Argentina establishes its first National Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Agency (AGNET).
• Expectations suggest AGNET will curb judicialization of healthcare access.
• However, HTA agencies alone have historically failed to contain judicialization in the region.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze why HTA agencies may not inherently reduce healthcare judicialization.
• To propose conditions for effective priority-setting (PS) in Argentina.
• To advocate for a social agreement on scarcity to inform coverage decisions.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of the relationship between HTA agency design and judicialization.
• Examination of the disconnect between technical HTA processes and system-wide priority-setting.
• Proposal for a framework to build social consensus on healthcare resource allocation.

Main Results:

• Judicialization persists due to legal frameworks and the separation of HTA from robust priority-setting.
• HTA agency creation, without broader system reforms, is insufficient to control judicialization.
• Effective priority-setting requires addressing financing transparency and debating the right to health within distributive conflicts.

Conclusions:

• Argentina's AGNET may not halt judicialization without addressing underlying systemic issues.
• Establishing explicit priority-setting necessitates a societal "agreement on scarcity."
• Transparency in healthcare financing and open debate on health rights are crucial for sustainable HTA implementation.