QALYs, justice and the capabilities approach
Date
2021
Authors
Dulaze, Neo Nontsikelelo
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Abstract
Governments are responsible for ensuring access to healthcare. Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of
medical and financial resources, medical rationing must take place. The rational allocation of healthcare
resources is significant in any society and directly affects health outcomes. This raises the question of
which criteria should be used to decide how medical treatments are allocated. Can age or ability, for
example, be appropriate selection criteria? How can ethics inform and shape how healthcare resource
allocation decisions are made? This paper studies and critiques quality-adjusted life year (QALY)
resource allocation methods and does so through the lens of Martha Nussbaum’s social justice
framework.
Methodology
The study design employed here is normative – it investigates how governing institutions ought to
allocate healthcare resources. Those research methods and standards typical of philosophical research
will be employed. I use Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach framework to ultimately argue that
the use of QALY evaluation in healthcare is unjust.
Conclusions
Cost-effectiveness or cost-utility assessment tools (used in QALY) for allocating health care resources
aim to maximise beneficial health outcomes. This raises two ethical concerns. The first is the
commodification of human lives. The second is that QALYs fail to implement accurate health preference
measurements for patients – especially in relation to patients with disabilities. Nussbaum's capabilities
approach places particular value on the significance of human dignity in human development. She also
sees human dignity as crucial for social justice, which can be achieved through governing bodies
promoting ten central capabilities. But, through their employment of preference utilities, QALYs
undermine access to this minimum threshold of capabilities. In this case, people’s capacities – that is their
freedoms and opportunities to have the sort of human dignity intrinsic to a good life – are violated
Description
A research report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science in Medicine (Bioethics and Health Law) to the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Clinical Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021