Ethical dilemmas in health policy:more evidence on distributive preferences
- Rodríguez Míguez, Eva
- Pinto Prades, José Luis
ISSN: 2341-2356
Year of publication: 1999
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-31
Type: Working paper
More publications in: Documentos de Trabajo (ICAE)
Abstract
The QALY -quality adjusted life years- approach assumes that each additional QALY has the same social value. The implications of this approach regarding distributive equity have been criticised. In this paper we identify different distributive preferences held by society, examining which restrictions need to be imposed in the Social Welfare Function (SWF) in arder that this function can represent the mentioned preferences. Furthermore, we propose a particular SWF that allows us to collect different degrees of aversion to inequality, depending on the QALY gains being analysed. The results of an experiment whose objective is to obtain a first empirical approach to the SWF are presented.