The ethics of health care rationing : an introduction / Greg Bognar and Iwao Hirose.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Ethics and health care : The vaccination programs -- 2. The value of health : Well-being and health -- 3. Ethics and cost-effectiveness : What is cost-effectiveness analysis? -- 4. Problems of discrimination : Two lines of attack -- 5. The aggregation of health benefits : The aggregation problem -- 6. Responsibility for health : Equality and luck -- --

1. Ethics and health care : The vaccination programs -- The ubiquity of rationing health care -- The inevitability of rationing health care -- Moral argument -- -- 2. The value of health : Well-being and health -- Health-related quality of life -- Quality-adjusted measures -- The burden of disease -- Whom to ask? -- -- 3. Ethics and cost-effectiveness : What is cost-effectiveness analysis? -- Calculating health benefits -- How is cost-effectiveness analysis used? -- Equity weights -- Discounting -- -- 4. Problems of discrimination : Two lines of attack -- Disability discrimination -- Fair innings -- Age-weighting and the burden of disease -- Further moral considerations -- -- 5. The aggregation of health benefits : The aggregation problem -- The number problem -- Fair chances -- Choosing patients -- Giving priority to the worse off -- -- 6. Responsibility for health : Equality and luck -- An alternative proposal -- Are smokers really responsible? -- The social gradient in health -- Social justice and health care rationing.

"Health care resources - such as personnel, beds, equipment, and donors - are expensive and in scarce supply. Additional factors, such as rapidly aging populations, add to the pressures on such services. Given the scarcity such resources fundamental ethical questions arise: How are such resources to be allocated? Who should have access to them? How should massive inequalities in health care access be addressed? What sort of ethical principles should guide the distribution of health care? This book introduces and assesses these questions and more. Beginning with an overview of competing theories of justice, the authors examine the following key topics: - what is the value of health and how do we measure it? - what sort of distributive principles - utilitarian, egalitarian or priority-based - should we adopt? - are some kinds of principles discriminatory and if so, how can they be avoided? Should the elderly or disabled receive equal treatment compared to the able-bodied? - how much responsibility does the individual have for her health? Why does the debate on responsibility for health lead so quickly to issues about class, behaviour, race and socioeconomic status? Throughout the book examples from the US, UK and developing nations are used to illustrate the philosophical issues at stake. These include the Oregon Medicaid plan, health service reforms in the UK, the World Health Organization study of diseases and the ethical issues that arise from natural disasters and epidemics"--Provided by publisher.