An inquiry into needs-based allocation of health care resources
چکیده
The concept of health care need is commonly used, particularly in the context of resource allocation. Any interpretation of what is meant by a need, if it is to be of practical use, must be able to take into account typical properties of health care interventions. Three such typical properties are: their probabilistic nature; variation between different interventions in the time course of the effect; and, the fact that the most effective treatments often combine more than one intervention. These three properties can readily be taken into account within the framework of welfare economics. In this paper, we examine the question of to what extent they can be accommodated within needs-based approaches. We argue that needs-based approaches cannot accommodate these three typical properties although some interpretations of ‘need’ are more problematic than others.