Soc Sci Med. 2014 May;108:257-61. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.029. Epub 2014 Jan 29.
Social science & medicine (1982)
Stephen Jan
PMID: 24647102 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.029
This paper provides a critical overview of Gavin Mooney's proceduralist approach to economic evaluation and priority setting in health. Proceduralism is the notion that the social value attached to alternative courses of action should be determined not only by outcomes, but also processes. Mooney's brand of proceduralism was unique and couched within a broader critique of 'neo-liberal' economics. It operated on a number of levels. At the micro level of the individual program, he pioneered the notion that 'process utility' could be valued and measured within economic evaluation. At a macro level, he developed a framework in which the social objective of equity was defined by procedural justice in which communitarian values were used as the basis for judging how resources should be allocated across the health system. Finally, he applied the notion of procedural justice to further our understanding of the political economy of resource allocation; highlighting how fairness in decision making processes can overcome the sometimes intractable zero-sum resource allocation problem. In summary, his contributions to this field have set the stage for innovative programs of research to help in developing health policies and programs that are both in alignment with community values and implementable.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Community values; Equity; Implementation; Priority setting; Procedural justice
