Individual autonomy and state involvement in health care

This article examines the ethical basis for government involvement in healt h care. It first provides the case for individual autonomy, focusing on the justifications-particularly ethical ones for allowing individuals to make their own choices in health care, and to control more of their own resource s in doing so. Next, it provides the opposite case for abridging individual autonomy, and in particular, for redistributing resources from those who a re well off to those who are not. The overriding reason for favouring the l atter case, which trumps the notion of individual autonomy, is to ensure th at individuals who are at a disadvantage have an equal probability of attai ning good health.