Medical Need, Equality, and Uncertainty - PubMed

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• PMID: 27196999
• DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12257

Medical Need, Equality, and Uncertainty

L Chad Horne. Bioethics. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Many hold that distributing healthcare according to medical need is a requirement of equality. Most egalitarians believe, however, that people ought to be equal on the whole, by some overall measure of well-being or life-prospects; it would be a massive coincidence if distributing healthcare according to medical need turned out to be an effective way of promoting equality overall. I argue that distributing healthcare according to medical need is important for reducing individuals' uncertainty surrounding their future medical needs. In other words, distributing healthcare according to medical need is a natural feature of healthcare insurance; it is about indemnity, not equality.

Keywords: distributive justice; equality; health insurance; healthcare; medical necessity; medical need; political philosophy.

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