Rationing health care

Description

Over het boekOne of the most controversial issues in many health care systems is health care rationing. In essence, rationing refers to the denial of - or delay in - access to scarce goods and services in health care, despite the existence of medical need. Scarcity of financial and medical resources confronts society with painful questions.Who should decide which medicine or new treatment will be covered by social security and on which criteria such decisions must be basedCan age, for example, be justified as a selection criterionShould decision-making be left to health care policymakers, hospital administrators, or rather, to treating physicians 39;bedside rationing39;Is there a role for individual patientsThese are difficult questions that suggest the need for transparent and democratic decision-making. In reality, however, the rationing debate occurs in a sub rosa world, based on imperfect information, distorted interpretations of effectiveness, and hidden cost concerns.39;Rationing Health Care. Hard Choices and Unavoidable Tradeoffs39; explores these and other questions from various perspectives medicine, philosophy, ethics, economics and law. Each of the authors39; contributions analyses the debate from a different angle in search of fair and just rationing decisions.Over de auteursAndr den Exter and Martin Buijsen are both academics affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands and founders of the Erasmus Observatory on Health Law.