title: How to avoid unfair discrimination against disabled patients in healthcare resource allocation.
abstract: The paper proposes a new method of researching public opinion for the purposes of valuing the outcomes of healthcare interventions. The issue I address is that, under the quality-adjusted life-year system, disabled patients face a higher cost-effectiveness hurdle than able-bodied patients. This seems inequitable. The author considers the alternative approaches to valuing healthcare interventions that have been proposed, and shows that all of them face the same problem. It is proposed that to value an outcome, instead of researching the general public, the population that is to be targeted with the intervention should be researched.
authors.affiliation: ARL Health, 48 Echline Drive, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, UK. sean.sinclair@arl-health.com
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D011639:Public Opinion; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000941:ethics*