Four Fellows give opposing views to the day's key talking point
Four Fellows give opposing views to the day's key talking point
“Fairness to me is that everybody pays according to their means and everybody receives according to their needs. But I think we need to make a pre-recognition of need because we have to take into account whether their need was inflicted by the person, by their behavior, or not. And maybe we can create two different levels of equity: one is give to the poor people, and then think if...it was not their fault being ill then they need more help than those whose fault it was to be ill because of his behavior. So first, I do believe that we have to take into account income and secondly, maybe we can redefine according to behavioral health.”
- Nelly Aguilera, Researcher, Inter- American Conference on Social Security, Mexico “The issue is: the right of someone’s to health access maybe someone else’s denial. So you could say ‘[there is] fairness, provided it’s transparent’ but that doesn’t help... I could say ‘Well, I only had $20 to spend and this is better value than that. I wish I had $40 to give it to you both, but I only have $20.’ So the question is that fairness is in the eye of the beholder to some extent because it depends on the individual who’s got the disease and has a different perspective about his right to health - that’s understandable but it doesn’t mean that you can meet that right, that fairness because the system doesn’t allow us so and we have to make deliberative choices... So how do we address that? We have to acknowledge that it exists! ... When does the right to offer an individual become a negative impactor on the right of another individual and how do you manage that?”
- Lloyd Sansom, Special Advisor, National Medicines Policy Framework, Department of Health, Australia“Fairness doesn’t ask you to treat everyone, it doesn’t ask you to give everything to everyone. Fairness is not about unlimited generosity. Fairness is not about financial unsustainability. Fairness is not about charity. Fairness is about being responsible with your resources, in allocating them in such a manner that all parties agree not on the decision, but on the process... Let’s have two societies, both equally rich or equally poor, and both of them face the same question - do we treat population A or population B? Both of them can come up with a different solution to that dilemma, and both solutions, although different in outcome, can be fair because the process...was. Fairness is not about the ultimate outcome - it is also about the process.”
- Leonardo Cubillos, Senior Health Care Specialist, World Bank Institute, USA“Fairness in terms of right to health is about ensuring that all considerations are put in place. First and foremost to focus on those who cannot afford health care - that is the most vulnerable...the chronic poor, the active poor, as opposed to those who can actually pay for health care. The question of fairness comes about because resources are always scarce and therefore policy makers and persons who are involved in planning health programs have to make key decisions on where they are going to get the maximum gain, and the maximum gain should always be around enabling people who cannot afford healthcare to get it so that they can become part of the productive sector.”
- Tina Ntulo, Director - New Initiatives, Basic Needs, Uganda
