Ethics, Justice, and Medical Care Systems

David Mechanic
Additional contact information
David Mechanic: Center for Medical Sociology and Health Services Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1978, vol. 437, issue 1, 74-85

Abstract: As medical costs mount and as government as sumes increasing responsibility for financing, explicit forms of medical care rationing are likely to be introduced. This paper considers the benefits and costs of different approaches to rationing and their implications for a just medical care system. Rationing may be imposed through financial barriers for the patient in the form of coinsurance and deductibles or in limitations on the funds, facilities, and services made available to the population. It is argued that imposing barriers to access on the theory that consumers are in a good position to make necessary differentiations places the burden of ra tioning on the patient who is least able to make the decision rationally, and places the poor, who have the least medical knowledge and background, in particular jeopardy. Other al ternatives include either the introduction of fixed budgets that require professionals to establish priorities or adminis trative decisions that prescribe the facilities and types of serv ices made available to varying population groups. Rationing techniques have different behavioral and ethical implications, and existing research indicates that the consequences of some rationing approaches are inconsistent with theoretical as sumptions.

Date: 1978
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627843700107 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:437:y:1978:i:1:p:74-85

DOI: 10.1177/000271627843700107

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().