Health Care

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter reaches some concrete conclusions concerning how health care should be arranged, but it does not address detailed questions concerning what health insurance policies should cover. The chapter argues in defense of universal health care (UHC) on the grounds of efficiency, fairness, freedom, and solidarity and discusses how UHC should be structured. It then argues that for reasons of efficiency, freedom, and solidarity, cost-effectiveness should be an important consideration governing UHC. The chapter examines how the criticisms alleging that cost-effectiveness allocation can be unfair apply in practice to actual cost-effectiveness analyses. The chapter then draws more general conclusions concerning what can be said about fair health care allocations, and it offers a concluding assessment of the use and limits of cost-effectiveness as a guide to the allocation of health-related resources.