Welfarist Approach In Healthcare

Introduction

There have been numerous debates on how to satisfy each stakeholder on resource allocation decisions in health care. In aid of making the best resource allocation decisions within the finite budget, economic evaluation is believed to be beneficial to determine how efficient the allocation of resource would be and its analytical approach could also provide a systematic and logical basis for decision-making. Both welfarist approach and alternative approaches, such as extra-welfarist approach and capability approach, may underlie the economic evaluation methods concept. In order to answer whether the welfarist approach is the best perspective for resource allocation decision, the following essay will firstly analyse the welfarist

Many characteristic of healthcare are known as the depressants of the competitive market. Initially, monopoly supply would be likely to occur in a non-perfectly competitive market. Moreover, a patient’s ability to make the right choices would be abated by the asymmetry of information between the patient and healthcare provider. In addition, price subsidies and public provision of healthcare are considered to be resulted by the presence of caring externalities. Lastly because of the uncertainty in demand and effectiveness of treatment will make questions difficult to answer, such as whether a intervention would be effective for a specific patient with a specific condition (Petrou and Wolstenholme, 2000). If the market mechanisms are quite useless in the health sector, how could the resource be allocated efficiently and equitably in health care? Therefore the objective (should it focus on efficiency or equity); the decision maker (who could decide the allocation) and the criteria of what attributes are important. These points are all key to make the allocation decision in health care. Before moving to the discussion of whether the welfarist approach is the best perspective for making allocation decisions in health care, a brief understanding of the relevant concepts would be laid following to help answer the

Concerning who should in charge of judging welfare and the related information of judging the goodness of a resource allocation, besides, the utility maximization is a behavioral assumption; the rests are all normative assumptions. Utility maximization--that is, given a set of choices, individuals can choose option and select the favorite according to the definition of the concept. Individual sovereignty claims that individual is one’s own best judge of benefits; any evaluation of the personal welfare ought to be judged by individual oneself. Consequentialism constrains that any related judgment should be decided entirely by the result or consequence. Welfarism is all about the utility in any case such as resource allocation, and is evaluated merely based on the personal utility not including all non-utility aspects