Prioritization and resource allocation in health care: the views of older people receiving continuous public care and service.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the views of people, 65 years and over, receiving continuous public care and service, on prioritization and resource allocation in health care, in relation to gender, age, housing, health-related quality of life (QoL) and degree of activities of daily living (ADL) dependency.


BACKGROUND
How older people receiving continuous public care and service view prioritization and resource allocation in health care is sparsely investigated, although this group most certainly has the experience and also often is the target in discussions concerning prioritization. It is necessary, for democracy and for the development of new models of service delivery, to find out how people receiving long-term care and service view these issues.


METHODS
146 persons, 34 men (23%) and 112 women (77%), aged 66-100 years were interviewed face to face, following a structured questionnaire.


RESULTS
The respondents thought that the patients' well-being, way of living and family situation should affect prioritization, not age per se. Resourcing of several health-care services were considered to be below what is required by a majority of the respondents. The respondents wanted doctors to decide on prioritization at an individual level and wanted higher taxes to finance increasing health-care costs. Although the respondents wanted publicly financed health care, a relatively high number were willing to pay for treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of how older people receiving care and services, view prioritization and resource allocation has not previously been available. It seems that their views are in line with the Swedish Parliamentary Priority Commission which suggested that no account should be taken of age when allocating resources within the health-care system. Respondents' age, gender, housing, health-related QoL and degree of dependency in ADL had limited influence on their views of resource allocation.
Werntoft
Elisabet
E
Department of Health Sciences, and Lund University, Lund, Sweden. elisabet.werntoft@med.lu.se
Hallberg
Ingalill R
IR
Edberg
Anna-Karin
AK
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000191:economics; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011639:Public Opinion; D011788:Quality of Life; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000191:economics; D013222:State Medicine / Q000191:economics; D013548:Sweden