EXAMINING PREFERENCES FOR ALLOCATING HEALTH-CARE GAINS

This study is part of a programme to elicit and examine community pref erences for health care in different contexts. Data were obtained from a group of predominantly Australian health care decision-makers, A sh ort questionnaire contained six valuation questions and four demograph ic questions. The six valuation questions posed choices where equal he alth gains were to be allocated to different population groups based u pon: age; sex; current health; socio-economic status; across time; and across different numbers of individuals. The results provide some evi dence that respondents were prepared to discriminate between health ga ins derived in different contexts especially where health gains were t o be allocated between groups of different health status and over time . Further research is planned and the possible implications for health policy, and in particular for resource allocation in health care, are briefly discussed.