Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 57 No. 2, 2021.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.21860/medflum2021_371650
Impossibility theorems in health economics
Davor Mance
orcid.org/0000-0002-6206-2464
; Sveučilište u Rijeci, Ekonomski fakultet, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Abstract
Abstract. Collective decision-making is subject to the impossibility of aggregating the preferences of individuals into a social welfare function, the impossibility of aggregating ordinal preferences into a social decision-making function, and the impossibility of aggregating preferences according to mutually incomparable criteria. These problems, for which there are formal theorems of evidence, could have significant consequences for society as for example in case of public health decision-making. Ethical issues, as can be seen from current examples of scarce vaccine allocation, exacerbate the methodological impossibility of aggregating preferences. However, without some form of social aggregation of preferences, or social decision making rules, the public sector, and thus public health systems, cannot perform their activity. This paper will try to summarize some of the problems that arise due to the current way of allocating scarce goods in health care.
Keywords
ethics; health care costs; health economics; public health
Hrčak ID:
255660
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2021.
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