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Vertical Equity in Health Care Resource Allocation

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Abstract

This paper introduces this mini-series on verticalequity in health care. It reflects on the fact that byand large equity policies in health care have failedand that there is a need for positive discriminationto promote equity better in future. This positivediscrimination is examined under the heading of`vertical equity'.The paper considers Varian's notion of `envy' as abasis for equity in health care but concludes thatthis is not a helpful route to go down. Better itwould seem to pursue the idea from Sen of `freedoms'and `communitarian claims' (as raised previously bythis author). While it is argued that proceduraljustice is to be preferred in the longer run as abasis for equity there are gains in adopting a shortrun goal of promoting distributive justice. Somepreliminary evidence is presented on the weighting ofhealth gains to reflect such vertical equityconcerns.

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Mooney, G. Vertical Equity in Health Care Resource Allocation. Health Care Analysis 8, 203–215 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009439917796

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009439917796

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