Centre for Policy on Ageing



Benefit and cost analysis in geriatric care — turning age discrimination into health policies
Author(s)	Jerry Avorn
Journal title	The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 310, no 20, 17 May 1984
Pages	pp 1294-1301
Keywords	Health services ; Cost benefit analysis ; Cost effectiveness ; Ageism ; Literature reviews ; United States of America.
Annotation	The limitations and inequities of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis - particularly as they apply to older people in the US - is explored in a literature review. The author discusses the evolution of the problem of the costs of some medical interventions. One of the basic measures of the benefit side of health programmes is the concept of "human capital", likening people to machines: are they worth repairing, considering their duration of useful productivity? Other measurements are people's willingness to pay, and the quality of life. It is not that cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness have no place in medical decision making. Rather, their quantifications are too imprecise and laden with value judgments to be helpful in dealing with the value of a human life. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-980108238 A
Classmark	L: WEA: WEC: B:TOB: 64A: 7T *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.