Prioritization of Health Care Services

Ethical Issues in Health Care System Reform

“…After pri-oritizing different health services accord¬ ing to their comparative benefits, the Oregon state legislature drew a line be¬ tween covered and uncovered services based on the amount of money it was willing to allocate for the services. 18 By using a financial cutoff to define the basic benefits package, which was not explicitly justified by a considered bal¬ ancing with other social needs, Oregon allowed its package to be limited ulti¬ mately by an arbitrary economic cap rather than ethical judgments about ad¬ equate health care. Under the Oregon plan, the definition of adequate health care will vary from year to year de¬ pending on the state of the economy rather than on the health needs of its citizens.…”