Health prioritisation as rationalist policy making : problems, prognoses and prospects
By: TENBENSEL, Tim.
Material type: ArticlePublisher: UK : Policy Press, july. 2000Subject(s): ChinaPolicy & Politics 28, 3, p. 425-440Abstract: A central issue in policy debate about the funding of health services has been the merits of explicit approaches to priority setting. In New Zealand, health authorities in the late 1990s formulated proposals for the explicit prioritisation of health expenditure according to a common currency of cost-utility. This exemplifies par excellence rationalist approaches to policy formulation which have been widely criticised on the basis that they unduly privilege the input of technical experts and systematic exclusion of public participation. This article argues that this rationalist approach to health prioritisation is highly problematic, but that the standard arguments against rationalism that focus on the dominance of technical experts need to be modified and reformulatedA central issue in policy debate about the funding of health services has been the merits of explicit approaches to priority setting. In New Zealand, health authorities in the late 1990s formulated proposals for the explicit prioritisation of health expenditure according to a common currency of cost-utility. This exemplifies par excellence rationalist approaches to policy formulation which have been widely criticised on the basis that they unduly privilege the input of technical experts and systematic exclusion of public participation. This article argues that this rationalist approach to health prioritisation is highly problematic, but that the standard arguments against rationalism that focus on the dominance of technical experts need to be modified and reformulated
There are no comments for this item.