Bursting Bubbles? QALYs and Discrimination

Ben Davies

Utilitas, 2019, vol. 31, issue 2, 191-202

Abstract: The use of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) in healthcare allocation has been criticized as discriminatory against people with disabilities. This article considers a response to this criticism from Nick Beckstead and Toby Ord. They say that even if QALYs are discriminatory, attempting to avoid discrimination – when coupled with other central principles that an allocation system should favour – sometimes leads to irrationality in the form of cyclic preferences. I suggest that while Beckstead and Ord have identified a problem, it is a misdiagnosis to lay it at the feet of an anti-discrimination principle. The problem in fact comes from a basic tension between respecting reasonable patient preferences and other ways of ranking treatment options. As such, adopting a QALY system does not solve the problem they identify.

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:utilit:v:31:y:2019:i:02:p:191-202_00

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