WHAT IS THE GOOD OF HEALTH-CARE

This paper sets out to discuss what precisely is meant by ''benefit'' when we talk of the requirement that the health care system concern it self with health gain or with maximising beneficial health care. In pa rticular I argue that in discharging the duty to do what is most benef icial we need to choose between rival conceptions of what is meant by beneficial. One is the patient's conception of benefit and the second is the provider's or funder's conception of benefit. I argue that it i s the patient's conception of benefit which is paramount and that if t his is followed it commits us to a conception of patient care which mu st be blind to prognosis in so far as prognosis is thought to bear upo n issues of prioritisation or resource allocation.