Investigators at Dalhousie University Discuss Findings in Health Insurance (Answering the Empirical Challenge to Arguments for Universal Health…

Investigators at Dalhousie University Discuss Findings in Health Insurance (Answering the Empirical Challenge to Arguments for Universal Health Coverage Based in Health Equity)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Research findings on Health Insurance are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting out of Halifax, Canada, by VerticalNews editors, the research stated, "Temkin asks how we should distribute resources between the social determinants of health (SDOH) and health care; Sreenivasan argues that if our goal is fair opportunity, funding universal health coverage (UHC) is the wrong policy. He argues that social equality in health has not improved under UHC and concludes that fair opportunity would be better served by using the resources to address the SDOH instead."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Dalhousie University, "His criticism applies more broadly than he claims: it applies to any argument for UHC based on health equity. However, neither his strong causal conclusion nor his stark policy proposal is justified. I review methodological challenges for establishing the relative causal contributions of health care and social policy, concluding that we may never have a robust causal account to support a consequentialist choice. Fortunately, we may not need to answer the allocation question as a dichotomy. Given what Sen calls the multidimensional nature of health equity and the role of UHC in cost containment, UHC may not be a threat to health equity. I also argue against Sreenivasan's claim that the data he discusses should not trouble sufficientists and prioritarians."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "The worst-off are not simply lagging in improvement; rather, their health status is stagnating or worsening."

For more information on this research see: Answering the Empirical Challenge to Arguments for Universal Health Coverage Based in Health Equity. Public Health Ethics, 2016;9(3):231-243. Public Health Ethics can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Oxford University Press - www.oup.com/; Public Health Ethics - phe.oxfordjournals.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting L. Reid, Dalhousie University, Dept. of Bioeth, Fac Med, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.

Keywords for this news article include: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, North and Central America, Health Insurance, Dalhousie University.

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