PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anthony J Culyer
TI  - Equity - some theory and its policy implications
AID  - 10.1136/jme.27.4.275
DP  - 2001 Aug 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 275--283
VI  - 27
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/27/4/275.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/27/4/275.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2001 Aug 01; 27
AB  - This essay seeks to characterise the essential features of an equitable health care system in terms of the classical Aristotelian concepts of horizontal and vertical equity, the common (but ill-defined) language of “need” and the economic notion of cost-effectiveness as a prelude to identifying some of the more important issues of value that policy-makers will have to decide for themselves; the characteristics of health (and what determines it) that can cause policy to be ineffective (or have undesired consequences); the information base that is required to support a policy directed at securing greater equity, and the kinds of research (theoretical and empirical) that are needed to underpin such a policy.