"How ought one decide what to include in a national health insurance scheme? Some simple economic principles.”

Abstract

Given a few important social value judgments:

All public health spending ought to create health/reduce ill-health Making Universal Health Coverage have its maximum impact on the nation’s health is a moral imperative Getting a fairer distribution of health care resources and of healthy life chances is a moral imperative Offering financial protection from personal health expenditures is a moral imperative I argue that a simple analogy helps us to decide what interventions in public and personal healthcare ought to be included in public health insurance schemes and which ones not.