1. Priority-Setting in Health: Building Institutions for Smarter Public Spending
- Author:
- Amanda Glassman and Kalipso Chalkidou
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Health donors, policymakers, and practitioners continuously make life-and-death decisions about which type of patients receive what interventions, when, and at what cost. These decisions—as consequential as they are—often result from ad hoc, nontransparent processes driven more by inertia and interest groups than by science, ethics, and the public interest. The result is perverse priorities, wasted money, and needless death and illness. Examples abound: In India, only 44 percent of children 1 to 2 years old are fully vaccinated, yet open-heart surgery is subsidized in national public hospitals. In Colombia, 58 percent of children are fully vaccinated, but public monies subsidize treating breast cancer with Avastin, a brand-name medicine considered ineffective and unsafe for this purpose in the United States.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States, India, and Colombia