Money, Lives and Scarcity - How do people allocate healthcare resources?

University Of Colorado At Denver, Aurora CO

Investigators

Abstract

Healthcare resources can be described either in terms of money, or in terms of health outcomes. Yet, past research suggests that people tend to use principles consistent with market norms (e.g., efficiency) to allocate money, but are reluctant to do so for "sacred values" such as health and lives. This research examines how people's allocation preference for healthcare resources can shift, depending on whether allocation policies are framed in terms of financial cost or health outcomes. It also explores whether people apply different allocation strategies to different types of healthcare resources based on how scarce they perceive the particular resource to be. The United States faces an eminent need to curb healthcare spending. However, there is no obvious consensus among members of the public on how to allocate the limited healthcare resources, nor is there agreement about how to balance efficiency versus equality in such allocations. The proposed research untangles public opinions on healthcare allocation by examining the influence of policy framing and perceived scarcity. This research studies large scale national probaility samples of American adults and will provide rich data on public opinions for a critical health policy issue; the distribution of limited healthcare resources. It will also provide guidance to policymakers for how to design different allocation policies for different healthcare resources, as well as how to frame allocation policies to gain the most public support for proposed policies.